Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday stressed that preparations for the May 15 parliamentary elections were on track, and that the Foreign Minister was studying the recent remarks on the expatriates’ voting process.
Speaking at the beginning of a Cabinet session at the Grand Serail, Mikati asked the Minister of Interior to follow up on the reported electoral violations with the Supervisory Commission for Elections (SCE).
Tackling the capital controls, Mikati said the law should have been endorsed on the first day of the crisis. “People confused the capital controls with the preservation of deposits,” he added, highlighting the necessity to approve the legislations requested by the International Monetary Fund to unlock the aid program.
Prior to the session, Energy Minister Walid Fayyad told reporters that a meeting with the World Bank representatives on Friday over regional energy deals did not yield the expected positive results. “We have heard that they are still studying the political feasibility of the project,” he said. “I don’t even know what political feasibility means,” he added.
He also indicated that contacts with the US and French ambassadors as well as the World Bank regional director were still ongoing. “The ball is now in the court of the US administration and the World Bank,” he stressed.
According to a multilateral agreement concluded in 2021, Egypt and Jordan are expected to provide Lebanon with gas and electric power respectively via the Syrian territories. However, the US blockade imposed on Lebanon and Syria, via Caesar law, has prevented the implementation of this agreement.
Source: Al-Manar English Website and NNA
