Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, on Monday castigated the Lebanese state officials for their carelessness and failure to form a new government and fight corruption.

“The utter carelessness of the state officials led and is leading to the disruption of the executive power, embodied by the government, noting that the failure to form it has blocked the state’s economic and financial capacities, and caused rampant corruption,” the prelate said during the inauguration of the annual synod of the Maronite Bishops in Bkekri.

Also, Rahi blamed the impoverishment of the Lebanese people on cross-border smuggling operations. “Smuggling has impoverished half of the Lebanese people and wiped out the middle class.”