SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 19 March 2024, Tuesday |

Sanctions on Lebanese officials, and Hezbollah is responsible for the crisis

The European Parliament voted on a resolution for Lebanon that included many positions that affirmed EU’s stable positions in holding corrupt political officials accountable. The European decision describes the situation in Lebanon as catastrophic on the humanitarian level, which was caused by officials in power, according to what was stated in the decision.

The European Parliament calls on all European countries to cooperate in order to implement the new sanctions that will affect corrupt officials who prevented the implementation of democracy and took decisions that violate human rights.

The decision gives a lot of space to port explosion and judicial investigations, and regrets the refusal of the majority of the MPs and some ministers to cooperate with the judicial authorities to reveal the truth. It also criticizes that no official has been arrested so far, and calls for an international investigation committee.

The European decision insists on independent and efficient investigations, and revealed information regarding the Assad regime’s relationship with nitrates through three Syrian businessmen who hold the Russian citizenship. The decision considered that political officials are obstructing the investigations to serve Assad. The resolution condemned what it described as foreign interventions to destabilize stability, especially by the Assad regime, which aim to obliterate the fact of the exploded port.

The European decision held Hezbollah and other parties responsible for suppressing popular demonstrations and for the political and economic crisis that the country has reached. The decision called for the establishment of a special court that includes independent judges to conduct investigations into corruption files and to set up a legal mechanism that would allow them to prosecute all corrupt officials and keep them away from political life.

The European Parliament, in an advanced step, also called on the Security Council to send an international mission to Lebanon months before the date of the parliamentary elections to monitor the electoral process and ensure that it takes place on time, stressing the need to respect the date set, refusing to postpone it by the political class for any pretext.

The European decision dealt extensively with the financial policy of the Governor of the Central Bank, accusing him of preventing an audit of the Central Bank’s accounts. It also referred to French and Swiss investigations against Salameh in the case of money smuggling and money laundering that took place in Swiss banks and in Panama, as well as in France, Germany and Switzerland through buying real estate in these states.

The European decision accuses the Lebanese deputies of having an interest in defending the banks due to the relationship that some of them have with a number of banks and because some of them are partners and others have shares in banks.

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  • Sawt Beirut International