Lebanese President General Michel Aoun announced on Wednesday he’d follow up on the course of financial auditing until the end, to liberate the Lebanese state of the network of political, economic and administrative corruption for whatever it takes.
“Lebanon doesn’t know the impossible, and our history tells us that we are a people who are not tired of the struggle to preserve their existence. Lebanon is determined, no matter what the cost, to pursue the process of liberating the Lebanese state from the system of political, economic and administrative corruption, which the country has become hostage to, with the cover of sectarian and social guarantees,” President Aoun said during the international video conference on humanitarian aid for Lebanon hosted by France.
“The international community can provide basic assistance to Lebanon in this context, through the means available to the United Nations and the European Union, in terms of combatting the theft of public funds and tracking illegal transfers of capital abroad, specifically starting from October 17, 2019,” the president said.
The President then renewed the call to the international community to “Resolve the issue of return of displaced Syrians to their lands, because our depleted country doesn’t have the infrastructure nor the appropriate means which would allow it to continue receiving or providing them with any support”.
“Today, our priority is to form a Government by adopting single standards which apply on all political forces. What is required of the coming Government is to launch the workshop of urgent structural reforms, reconstruct Beirut, develop a financial and economic recovery plan and law down implementation frameworks,” President Aoun added.
The meeting, organized by France and the United Nations, is the second since the disastrous Aug. 4 explosion that destroyed Beirut’s port and wrecked large parts of the capital.
During the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he will visit Lebanon for a third time this year in order to “pressure the political class.”
“I’ll return to Lebanon this month to pressure the political class and politicians must form a government to conduct reforms or else there will not be international aid,” Macron said at the start of the conference.
“We won’t abandon the need to carry out reforms nor the Beirut port investigations,” he added.
Macron also called for “speeding up the formation of the Lebanese government and abiding by the French reform initiative.”
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