2023-07-10 21:08:44
Mikati’s office: There is no extension for the governor of the Banque du Liban in his position
The office of the caretaker prime minister in Lebanon, Najib Mikati, said today, Monday, that he will not extend the current (Central) Governor of the Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, in his position when his term ends on July 31.
Salameh’s accusations at home and abroad of embezzling public funds cast a shadow over his 30-year tenure. Salama denies the charges against him.
Mikati’s office said in a statement in response to questions from “Archyde.com” that the position has a law stipulating that the first deputy ruler will assume the ruler’s duties until a new ruler is appointed.
And he continued in his statement, “The most important thing is that there is no vacancy in the Central Bank, because it is the financial nerve of the country.” “The institutions complete their work through the first deputy governor and the remaining deputies,” he added.
One of the four deputies of the Governor of the Banque du Liban told Archyde.com that they are considering resigning together if a successor is not appointed, which increases the possibility of a vacancy in the position of governor amid a major financial crisis.
His Excellency Al-Shami, the Deputy Prime Minister, told Archyde.com last week that such a threat was “very serious” and that the governor’s deputies should “assume their responsibility in the event that this appointment is not possible.”
Efforts to find a successor to Salameh are complicated by the collapse of the regimes and the escalation of political tension in the country. The president of the country usually appoints the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, but the parliament has not yet elected a successor to former President Michel Aoun, whose term of office ended in late October.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a longtime supporter of Salameh, told reporters today, Monday, that “necessities make things permissible,” indicating that the caretaker government should appoint a governor for the bank.
However, he added, “I will respect what the prime minister announced in this regard, in terms of neither appointment nor extension.”
Many Lebanese hold Salameh and the long-standing ruling elite responsible for Lebanon’s financial collapse. Salameh says he is a scapegoat for this collapse, which followed decades of corruption and wasteful spending by politicians.
For years, Salameh remained very close to power. Mikati defended Salameh in late 2021, saying he should remain in office even as investigations began against him for graft. He added that no one changes his officers during the war.
Recently, however, Salameh appears to be increasingly isolated. And the man who used to appear a lot before in banking conferences and high-end restaurants, no longer appears in public except rarely, with the exception of media interviews from time to time.
He has repeatedly said he will leave the post when his term ends in July.
And last week, the French judiciary agreed to seize the funds and property belonging to the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, and his associates, in favor of the Lebanese state.
And the Lebanese Minister of Justice in the caretaker government, Henri Khoury, announced in a statement that “the French judiciary approved the requests submitted by French lawyers Emmanuel Daoud and Jean-Claude Bovet, who were assigned by the Lebanese state, to seize the funds and properties belonging to the governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salameh, and his companions, Raja Salameh. and Marianne Hoyek, and Anna Kozakova, in favor of the Lebanese state.
(Archyde.com, The New Arab)
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