BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Lebanon’s moves to remove weapons from all non-state groups and assert full state control are as important as financial reforms if the economy is to recover after years of crisis, the economy minister said Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need economic reforms, but you also need security and political reforms,\u201d Amer Bisat told The Associated Press after a cabinet session in which the Lebanese military reported progress on a plan to disarm Hezbollah<\/a> and non-state groups and expand deployment in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re moving, and we\u2019re moving fairly decisively and clearly in that direction,\u201d he said, adding that asserting full sovereignty to boost investor confidence goes beyond disarmament and military deployment in the south.<\/p>\n \u201c(It) is also the control of the borders, control of the airport, control over smuggling, money-laundering, terrorist activities,\u201d said Bisat.<\/p>\n Lebanon’s military said Thursday it has completed the first phase of<\/a> the plan, though Israel maintains that Hezbollah is still present and rearming in areas the army said it now fully controls.<\/p>\n Israel and Hezbollah\u2019s monthslong war in 2024<\/a> battered large swaths of the country and set it back the further economically after years of crisis. The World Bank estimates $11 billion in damages and economic losses from the conflict. The country fell into a protracted financial crisis in 2019 after decades of corruption and mismanagement.<\/p>\n Bisat is a member of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam\u2019s reformist government<\/a> which was appointed last year with a mandate to reform the country\u2019s banks and make the country\u2019s crippled economy viable again.<\/p>\n For years, the government has stalled on making wide-reaching reforms that could implicate the country\u2019s wide network of cronies. However, western countries and wealthy Gulf Arab monarchies that once poured large sums of money into the country, say that investment and substantial help won\u2019t come without economic and security reforms.<\/p>\n Years of talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout have failed to produce a deal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a credibility gap, we need an international framework to help us solve our problems,\u201d Bisat said. \u201cThe days in which people help us without us doing our homework are gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Bisat is among a slim majority of cabinet ministers, alongside Salam, who last month endorsed a draft fiscal gap law<\/a> to determine the extent of losses \u2014 estimated to be tens of billions of dollars \u2014 suffered by Lebanese banks during the country\u2019s financial meltdown in 2019<\/a> and provide a mechanism to return depositors\u2019 funds that were wiped out at the time. The draft law has been criticized from all sides and it is unclear whether it will be passed by the parliament.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an extremely important piece of legislation, without which this economy just will not be able to take off,\u201d said Bisat, who insisted that the law is not \u201cBiblical\u201d but a framework to start serious discussions. \u201cThis problem is extremely complicated financially. The size of the gap is very large.\u201d<\/p>\n Bisat sees economic opportunities globally, especially with Gulf countries that are slowly rebuilding ties with Beirut after previously cutting them to push back against Hezbollah’s influence in the country. He also cites regional changes, notably the downfall of the Assad dynasty in Syria, and wealthy Gulf states’ appetite in boosting international investments as they diversify their economies, as further incentive for Lebanon to accelerate reforms.<\/p>\n But none of these opportunities will materialize without reforms to restructure the banks and tackle corruption.<\/p>\n \u201cWaiting is not an option. Precisely because time is not our friend,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Lebanon’s moves to remove weapons from all non-state groups and assert full state control are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[119731,72,83592,113,76243,90179,61,60,14396,119733,119732,119734],"class_list":{"0":"post-235081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-amer-bisat","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economic-reforms","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-financial-reforms","13":"tag-hezbollah","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-lebanon","17":"tag-political-reforms","18":"tag-southern-lebanon","19":"tag-state-control"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}