|
The tug-of-war for control of Lebanon is taking a financial turn with high-ranking officials from 35 mostly Western and Gulf countries meeting in Paris seeking to raise billions of dollars in aid for Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s embattled government.
Siniora arrived in Paris last fortnight,amidst Hezbollah-led protesters who want to topple him. They clashed with government supporters across Lebanon. At least three people were killed and dozens injured in the violence.
The United States and other Western nations that support Siniora see crucial stakes in Lebanon, hoping the country can emerge from years of war as an oasis of stability in the restive Middle East and stand on its own without interference from countries like Syria or Iran.
The aid package that analysts expect will be about $5 billion (about Dh18.35 billion) will help cut Lebanon’s public debt and pay for rebuilding costs after the 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah fighters last summer.
Such support amounts to financial one-upmanship in Lebanon. Iranian-backed Hezbollah is thought to have doled out many millions of dollars worth of aid to residents of areas devastated by the fighting.
“There’s a high-speed race between this (international) aid and the aid from Hezbollah and Iran, which is more direct - more often in cash,” said Joseph Bahout, a Lebanese-born professor at Paris’s elite Sciences Po political university.
Many parts of southern Lebanon remain a wasteland of destruction and rubble five months after the end of the war, despite pledges from the government, Hezbollah and the world to put roofs over people’s heads and bring the country back to its feet.
While some of the foreign aid could go to reconstruction projects, analysts said most will go to reducing short-term debt - Lebanon faces a staggering $40 billion in public debt - and to paying daily expenses like soldiers’ salaries and electricity.
Lebanon’s economy is virtually at a standstill, despite two other Paris donor conferences since 1998 and another in Stockholm, Sweden. “What’s happening this time is a bit of an injection of vitamins for the current government, to allow it to hold out for another year or so,” said Bahout.
|
|
