U.S. Ambassador Says Washington Not Blocking Entry of Dollars into Lebanon
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea on Wednesday denied that her country is blocking the entry of U.S. dollars into Lebanon.
In remarks to LBCI television, Shea added that claims that the United States is behind Lebanon’s economic crisis are false fabrications.
She said that decades of corruption and unsustainable decisions are instead to blame for the crisis.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had on Tuesday blamed the United States for the dollar shortage in Lebanon, saying Washington is preventing the foreign currency from coming into Lebanon and is pressuring its central bank not to inject fresh amounts into the economy.
Lebanon is facing an unprecedented confluence of economic and financial crises characterized by a severe shortage of dollars and negative economic growth. The crises were compounded by the coronavirus virus pandemic that left the country in a lockdown for weeks and deepened unemployment and inflation. In addition, new U.S. sanctions against Syria, the toughest yet, went into effect Wednesday penalizing any country or entity that does business with the Syrian government.
Source: Naharnet
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