Caretaker Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, chaired a meeting on the black market dollar pricing platforms, which was attended by Ministers Ghazi Wazni, Mohamed Fahmy, Marie-Claude Najm, and Talal Hawat, in addition to BdL Governor Riad Salameh, Court of Cassation Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat, PCM Secretary-General Judge Mahmoud Makie, and PM advisor, Kodor Taleb.
PM Hassan Diab:
At the outset, Premier Diab made the following remarks: “Unfortunately, until today, a new government has not been formed, about 10 months and 18 days after the resignation of our government, despite the exceptional situation in which the country is going. We were supposed to have ended negotiations with the IMF and started implementing the recovery plan set up by our government in order to get the country out of the deep financial crisis. But unfortunately, the recovery plan has been placed on hold and the country is still paying the price, after decades-long wrong financial policies have caused the collapse that undermined social stability. It is normal for people to voice pain and opposition against the outcome: financial and economic collapse; staggering increase in food prices; fuel and diesel shortage; power cuts... However, I would like to make the following observations:
1- There is a big difference between the cry of pain and protest and between chaos, riots, attacks on people’s properties, roads cuts, as well as attacks on the army and security forces. What is happening on the streets cannot be justified nor considered innocent or expressive of people’s agony. I support people's objection and outcry; I back them in their demand for change, for reform, for recovery of stolen and smuggled funds, and for the fight against corruption... I support all these demands, as well as people's protests in the streets, such as the October 17, 2019 uprising, for that uprising was a great example. However, what is happening today distorts people’s outcry and screws up their demands. What happens is against the people and their interest. Whose interests are served when citizens' cars are wrecked, their property attacked and roads are blocked?
2- How comes that whenever there is an opportunity to benefit from the tourism season and from the amount of money that enters the country as a result of this season and its positive outcomes, there is havoc in the streets? The volume of tourist bookings this year has exceeded our expectations, and between 4 and 5 billion dollars will flow into the country this season according to recent estimates, bringing about a great economic activity that would help the country withstand the crisis.
3- The entire country, including the state and its institutions, the BdL, 64 banks, companies and shops, and 6 million inhabitants, are all controlled by one or several platform(s) that determine, raise and lower the price of the dollar, and the criteria for the rise or fall of the dollar’s price on the parallel market remain unknown. How can we accept that an unknown platform, whose managers, the ones behind it and their goals are unidentified, controls the fate of the state and its people?! It's a really weird thing!
Is it reasonable that, after a year and a half, we still haven’t managed to know anything about these platforms, we still could not stop them, and we did nothing to face them so far?! Is it possible that these platforms are stronger than the judiciary system as well as security and information services? How come that these platforms are stronger than the state?! Is it possible that we do not have the ability to interrupt these platforms? This is a flagrant inability, and this exposes the entire country and its people. This is irrational!
For a year and a half, we have been prisoners of platforms that determine the fate and future of a nation and people. Thus, I wanted to hold this meeting today in order to put an end to this chaos and to the uncontrolled black market dollar pricing platforms that have suspicious goals and that are blamed for the country’s explosion.”
The interlocutors agreed on tasking the judiciary with the mission of prosecuting the dollar manipulators, closing all dollar pricing platforms, and implementing necessary actions aimed at suppressing manipulation of the prices of commodities that are imported on the Bdl “Sayrafa” platform.