Lebanon, one of the most indebted nations in the world, defaulted for the first time in March on its sovereign debt. Anti-government protests that erupted in October subsided during a nationwide lock-down since mid-March to blunt the spread of the Coronavirus. Those restrictions are starting to ease.
Last Thursday, the prime minister said he will seek a rescue program from the International Monetary Fund, but protesters rallied again Friday, criticizing the government’s handling of the unprecedented crisis that saw the local currency crash, people’s savings devastated, and prices and inflation soar.
The Security Council was meeting to discuss implementation of a 2004 resolution that called for the Lebanese government to extend its authority throughout the country and all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias to disband.
The U.N. Security Council on Monday backed Lebanon’s efforts to end the country’s economic crisis and tackle other challenges including the impact of COVID-19 and called on the international community to help.
In a report to the council circulated Monday on the resolution’s implementation, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also addressed Lebanon’s current economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As the dire economic and financial situation in Lebanon is now compounded by the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the country’s economy, it is all the more urgent that the country’s leaders develop and implement the required reforms,” he said.
Lebanon was engulfed in civil war from 1975-1990, and a U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL has been in Lebanon since 1978 after Israel invaded parts of southern Lebanon. Since then, there have been major wars in 1982 and in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah militants which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people on both sides.
The Security Council statement “recognized the additional challenges posed by the global COVID pandemic, also on the Lebanese economy, and commended the preventive measures taken by UNIFIL in that regard.”
Guterres’ report said Lebanon’s government continued efforts to extend the authority of the state throughout the country but Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias continue to operate outside government control in violation of the 2004 resolution and the Taif Accords that ended the country’s civil war.
