Amid a worsening economic climate in Lebanon, the country’s caretaker interior minister, Bassam al-Mawlawi, said the country does not have a solution to the crisis.
Lebanon has been suffering from a three-year financial crisis, which saw the black-market rate of the Lebanese pound drop more than 95 percent of its value against the dollar, leaving more than 80 percent of the country’s population living below the poverty line.
Lebanon working to prevent banking collapse
“The fact is that the Ministry of the Interior does not have a solution to this crisis,” Lebanese minister, al-Mawlawi told Arabian Business in an interview.
“It is, however, keen on preventing the collapse of the banking system.”
Standoffs between banks, security personnel and investors have seen tensions raised in the country.
Armed attacks on the banks, including by depositors, have caught the attention of Arab media and thrown light on the intensity of the economic crisis in this country.
“People’s rights are sacred,” Mawlawi said. “So is public order in Lebanon”.
He said his ministry’s role is not confined to the protection of private institutions, but this role also includes the preservation of public order in the country.
He noted that Lebanon’s economic crisis had been ongoing since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mawlawi believes that his country’s security is in good condition, thanks to coordination and co-operation between his ministry and other security and military agencies in Lebanon.
He noticed a drop in crime rates between 2019 and 2021, despite a reported increase in street theft.
There have been media reports that some of Lebanon’s police force had abandoned jobs due to low salaries. Lebanese law prevents serving policemen from seeking secondary employment to supplement their income or travel outside their country.
However, Mawlawi has praised the dedication of police forces in Lebanon.
“The situation would have been even worse, if the majority of policemen did not believe in the importance of their mission,” the minister said.
“Solving this problem is completely out of the hands of the Interior Ministry,” Mawlawi said.
Commenting on the sabotage of a major drug trafficking operation by the Information Department, an affiliate of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces Directorate, last week, Mawlawi said his ministry works to protect the security of other Arab, especially Gulf states, that support Lebanon.
“We have to trade good for good,” Mawlawi said. “We pledged to protect the security of these states from the very beginning.”
He said security forces carry out dozens of raids to foil drug trafficking operations.
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