Lebanese economist Nadeem Shahadi has said that 18 years ago in this month, Lebanon's leading politician and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a suicide truck bomb attack in Beirut.
Answering the questions of Katie Jens, the host of Arab News' current affairs talk show Frankly Speaking, he said that for years after the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, politicians and key figures opposed to the influence of both Syria and the Hezbollah organization in the country. Personalities have been targeted in various ways.
Rafiq Hariri was involved in the construction sector before entering politics and was considered the country's philanthropist, who donated millions of dollars to victims of war and conflict in Lebanon and was later instrumental in ending the civil war and rebuilding the capital. Also played a role.
Nadeem Shahadi said that the assassination of Rafiq Hariri was the beginning of the dramatic political change and the movements demanding democracy in Lebanon.
Despite strong calls for an international tribunal to indict Hezbollah members for the murder of Rafiq Hariri and investigate his death, the Iran-backed militia group has tightened its grip on Lebanon and the country is facing a dire situation.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry came to Lebanon and took almost 15 years to produce their findings after completing their investigations.
According to Nadeem Shahadi, despite the conviction in Hariri's case, Hezbollah's influence over Lebanon means that the real perpetrators of the murder will not be punished and that the group will hold the country hostage.
Lebanon's various political and economic crises have intensified in recent years, with inflation in the country reaching the world's highest level in 2021 and the Lebanese currency depreciating sharply.
He said that Lebanon is a country whose capital was once called the 'Paris of the East' but now two-thirds of the population is suffering from poverty, permanent power outages and shortages of necessities such as medicine and water are becoming common. Is.
Instability in Lebanon has been greater in recent years in the wake of the global Corona pandemic, as well as the 2020 Beirut port explosions that killed hundreds, injured hundreds, and displaced thousands, along with massive economic losses, as well as half of the country's population. Most of the city was affected.
International organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have been campaigning against this injustice and inequality here and have described the investigation into the blast as a "joke".
Nadeem Shahadi claimed that Hezbollah had interfered with the investigation despite Lebanon's historically 'very stable and active judiciary'.
This series of disasters has led many Lebanese to call for the removal of the entire political class, which Nadeem Shahadi sees as a 'ridiculous demand'.
In the opinion of the economist, the political system of Lebanon is not 'sectarianism' but a political system based on social contract between communities.
We have a banking system that is the banking center of the region, we have political parties,” the economist said. These are the pillars that distinguish Lebanon, and the revolution is demanding the end of almost all of these pillars.
Eight months after the general election, Lebanon has yet to reach a consensus on its president or a functioning parliament.
Immediate political reforms are needed to activate $3 billion in emergency funds from the International Monetary Fund, but Lebanon's political system is in shambles and its parliamentarians are regularly walking out to prevent access to the fund.
Nadeem Shahadi added that Lebanon and its institutions are "hostages to the veto power" of Hezbollah, which has established a foothold in Lebanon through assassinations and political coalition building.
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