Schenker: Lebanon’s IMF request a necessary first step

US assistant secretary for Near East affairs, David Schenker welcomed on Friday Lebanon’s request for help from the International Monetary Fund as “a good first step” in a long process to ease its economic crisis.

 

“It is good that they asked but it is not just about asking. It is a necessary first step,” Mr Schenker told The National.

 

 “I don’t want to prejudge what the IMF may be looking for but it has to meet a level of transparency and a full commitment to this,” Schenker said.

 

He said he expected “rigorous conditions” to be set by international institutions in implementing the reform plan, requiring commitment acrosslebanon’s political spectrum.

 

“Hezbollah is not known for its support for reforms," Schenker added. 

 

"This is an organization that funds its activities through illicit finance, corruption,” he went on by saying.

 

Schenker predicted a “lengthy process” for the country to set itself free from decades-long economic turmoil that led to the current crisis.

 

On another note, Schenker welcomed Germany’s designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization on Thursday, saying it “erodes Hezbollah’s legitimacy in some quarters in the world and the fiction over differences between military and political wings”.

 

He also voiced hopes “that other European countries would follow.”