Ministerial Panel Finalizes Policy Statement amid LF Reservations

A ministerial panel tasked with drafting the Policy Statement of the new government finalized the text on Wednesday after a final reading session.

“Things were calm and the atmosphere was very positive,” Information Minister Jamal al-Jarrah said after the meeting.

“Minor amendments were introduced without altering the core,” he noted.

“We are waiting for President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri to agree on a date for a cabinet session aimed at endorsing the statement and it will likely be held tomorrow,” Jarrah added.

And noting that the meeting did not witness clashes over any point, the minister said the Lebanese Forces voiced reservations over a clause related to “the right of Lebanese citizens to resist” Israel after the panel refrained from adding the phrase “within the state's legitimate institutions” to it.

LBCI television meanwhile reported that the Policy Statement will stress Lebanon's “commitment to a harmonious financial and monetary policy that enhances confidence in the national economy, lowers the debt-to-GDP ratio through increasing the economy's size, and slashes the treasury's deficit.”

“As of the 2019 state budget, Lebanon is committed to conducting a financial rectification with a rate of 1% over a period of five years through boosting revenues and slashing expenditure, starting by Electricite du Liban's annual deficit which would be eventually totally eliminated,” LBCI quoted the government as saying in the statement.

The government also says that it is “committed the maintaining a fixed national currency exchange rate seeing as it is a priority for social and economic stability.”