BEIRUT, A senior UN official, yesterday warned that, Lebanon may be turned into a \u201cfailing state\u201d if the government does not succeed in implementing quick and serious reform measures, amid the current unprecedented financial crisis.<\/P>
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\u201cThe prime minister should exercise his authority and move the country forward. There is no time to waste,\u201d said Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, during a press conference held at the end of his mission in the capital, Beirut.<\/P>
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He noted, with a highly regressive tax system, Lebanon is \u201camong the most unequal countries on the planet where 10 percent of the wealthiest people earn 70 percent of the total wealth.\u201d<\/P>
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De Schutter pointed out that Lebanon is facing four main crises, including the presence of a big number of Syrian refugees, the devaluation of the Lebanese pound, amid the rising inflation, the COVID-19 outbreak, which increased school drop-out among Lebanese students, and the impact of the Beirut port blasts, which left thousands of people homeless and hundreds of thousands others jobless.<\/P>
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\u201cBehind all of these crises, there is a crisis of trust,\u201d De Schutter added.<\/P>
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De Schutter emphasised the need for the political system to recover its integrity, especially when it comes to the banking sector responsible for the downfall of the Lebanese pound and the impoverishment of the people.<\/P>
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He noted that, one of the inconveniences facing the banking sector is the fact that, 18 out of 20 banks have major shareholders linked to the political elites.<\/P>
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\u201cWe need to prevent the conflict of interests between the business sector and politicians, otherwise Lebanon will become a state that is captured by economic interests,\u201d he said.<\/P>
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Source: Nam News Network<\/P>
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BEIRUT, A senior UN official, yesterday warned that, Lebanon may be turned into a \u201cfailing state\u201d if the government does not succeed in implementing quick and serious reform measures, amid the current unprecedented financial crisis.\u201cThe prime minister …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1781,2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n