IMF Will Only Support a 'Comprehensive Program' for Lebanon, Says Georgieva

An anti-government demonstrator holds a Lebanese flag as she stands on top of her car, during a countrywide lockdown to combat coronavirus, in Beirut, Lebanon April 21, 2020. (Reuters)
An anti-government demonstrator holds a Lebanese flag as she stands on top of her car, during a countrywide lockdown to combat coronavirus, in Beirut, Lebanon April 21, 2020. (Reuters)
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IMF Will Only Support a 'Comprehensive Program' for Lebanon, Says Georgieva

An anti-government demonstrator holds a Lebanese flag as she stands on top of her car, during a countrywide lockdown to combat coronavirus, in Beirut, Lebanon April 21, 2020. (Reuters)
An anti-government demonstrator holds a Lebanese flag as she stands on top of her car, during a countrywide lockdown to combat coronavirus, in Beirut, Lebanon April 21, 2020. (Reuters)

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday the fund would only support a "comprehensive program" for Lebanon that would tackle all the country's ills, including corruption.

"Our team is working very closely with their Lebanese counterparts," Georgieva told reporters. "We are stressing that it has to be a comprehensive program."

Lebanese officials began talks with the IMF last month to pull the Middle Eastern country out of the worst economic crisis in its history, reported AFP.

Georgieva called Lebanon's circumstances "very, very dire," and said "it has been so for a long time, and short of a strong government commitment to change the course of the country, the suffering of the Lebanese people would continue."

She said the Washington-based crisis lender was negotiating over a budget proposal that would address Lebanon's banking sector and "reforms that the country needs including more transparency for what the government does."

Lebanon defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2020, a first in its history.

Its currency has lost about 90 percent of its value on the black market and four out of five Lebanese now live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations, a situation made worse by triple-digit inflation.

Despite the economic collapse, the country's ruling class has blocked reforms that foreign donors say must happen before aid is dispensed.



Israeli Ground Troops in Lebanon Reach the Litani River

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Al-Khiam, as seen from northern Israel, 26 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Al-Khiam, as seen from northern Israel, 26 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
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Israeli Ground Troops in Lebanon Reach the Litani River

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Al-Khiam, as seen from northern Israel, 26 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Al-Khiam, as seen from northern Israel, 26 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)

The Israeli military says its ground troops have reached parts of Lebanon’s Litani River — a focal point of the emerging ceasefire.

In a statement Tuesday, the army said it had reached the Wadi Slouqi area in southern Lebanon and clashed with Hezbollah forces.

Under a proposed ceasefire, Hezbollah would be required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the Israeli border.

The military says the clashes with Hezbollah took place on the eastern end of the Litani, just a few kilometers (miles) from the border. It is one of the deepest places Israeli forces have reached in a nearly two-month ground operation.

The military says soldiers destroyed rocket launchers and missiles and engaged in “close-quarters combat” with Hezbollah forces.

The announcement came hours before Israel’s security Cabinet is expected to approve a ceasefire that would end nearly 14 months of fighting.