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 Strikes on Gaza Strip Leave 15 Dead, Medics Say

 Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City November 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City November 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strikes on Gaza Strip Leave 15 Dead, Medics Say

 Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City November 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City November 27, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 15 people on Wednesday, some of them in a school housing displaced people, medics in Gaza said, adding that the fatalities included two sons of a former Hamas spokesman.

Health officials in the Hamas-run enclave said eight Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded in an Israeli strike that hit the Al-Tabeaeen School, which was sheltering displaced families in Gaza City. Among those killed were two sons of former Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, according to medics and Barhoum himself.

In the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, another strike killed four people, while three people were killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the enclave where army forces have been operating since last month.

Separately, a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah came into effect on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the US and France, a rare victory for diplomacy in a region shaken by two wars for over a year.

Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing missiles at Israel in solidarity with Hamas after the Palestinian group attacked Israel in October of 2023, killing around 1,200 people and capturing over 250 hostages, Israel has said, triggering the Gaza war.

Israel's 13-month campaign in Gaza has left nearly 44,200 people dead and displaced nearly all the enclave's population at least once, according to Gaza health officials.

Months of attempts to negotiate a ceasefire have yielded scant progress and negotiations are now on hold, with mediator Qatar saying it has told the two warring parties it would suspend its efforts until the sides are prepared to make concessions.