Aoun says a number of states expressed desire to help Lebanon

Lebanese president Michel Aoun said a number of states with France at the forefront had expressed desire to help Lebanon, the president’s office quoted him saying in an interview with French magazine Valeurs Actuelles on Saturday. 

Aoun said he had a telephone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, in which Macron congratulated him on the formation of the new government and they discussed the current crisis facing Lebanon. 

Lebanon’s government on Thursday approved a rescue plan that seeks to pull the country from its worst financial and economic crisis in decades.

REFORMS

Lebanon cannot expect to receive international aid for its battered economy until the new government undertakes serious reforms, diplomats decided at a closed-door meeting in Paris last December.

The international group, led by France and the United Nations, met to discuss conditions for helping ease turmoil in Lebanon, which is facing its worst financial crisis in decades and political uncertainty amid an ongoing protest movement. Lebanese businesses and households are growing increasingly desperate as cash supplies there have dwindled.

REUTERS