In November, 2022, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, said the Lebanese will have to bear more pain before their country sees a new government.
Leaf insolently explained what the word ‘pain’ refers to by indicating that collapse and disintegration would be inevitable before the Lebanese reach better conditions. She also considered that Lebanon must link its economic situation with the International Monetary Fund loans whose prerequisites contradict with all the socioeconomic norms followed in the nation.
It is late January, 2023, and the scene in Lebanon has started to resemble Leaf’s portray.
The exchange rate of the national pound against the US dollar is falling as a rock thrown from the peak to the valley. On the black market, every US dollar is sold for 55,000 L.L.
Accordingly, the prices of fuel oil, commodities and all the services have rocketingly increased, pushing the protestors to block roads in various cities and towns.
Here comes the US role in besieging the Lebanese monetary movements and banking transactions, which caused the sacristy of the fresh US dollars and raised inflation.
The weird return of the judicial investigator into Beirut Port blast Judge Tarek Al-Bitar to the case represented another trace of Leaf’s scheme. In this regard, Bitar charged top Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oweidat along with several judges and officials in connection with the case.
The US embassy in Beirut said in a tweet that Washington supports and urges Lebanese authorities to complete a swift and transparent investigation into the blast.
The investigating judge also charged Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon’s domestic intelligence agency, and Major General Tony Saliba, head of another security body as well as former premier Hassan Diab, army commander Jean Kahwaji and other ministers judicial officials have said, without specifying the charges.
Commenting on the charges, Oweidat told Tarek Bitar that his probe into the Beirut Port blast remains suspended. In a letter to Bitar, Oweidat said: “By legal means you are forced out of the probe and no resolution has been made on accepting or rejecting your complaint (on the issue).”
Al-Bitar had issued arrest warrants against officials as well as military figures on an illogical basis, pushing the defendants and observers to cast doubts on his probe.
On August 4, 2020, a massive blast rocked Beirut Port blast, killing around 196 citizens and injuring over 6000 of others. The explosion also caused much destruction in the capital and its suburbs.
Observing the whole scene deteriorated by the presidential vacuum and political deadlock recalls every detail included in the remarks of the US diplomat around three months ago.
On the other hand, the Lebanese national parties are not going to let the US scheme pass easily. Leaf’s note pertaining the need of the maritime gas project for a long time to become fruitful will be confronted by speeding up all the gas and fuel plans as affirmed by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah during his latest speech.
Leaf planned for Lebanon’s disintegration in order to let the reconstruction be free of Hezbollah. However, the Resistance will show the US administration and its puppets that all such schemes will be doomed to failure.
Source: Al-Manar English Website
