Hezbollah agrees to IMF help, under conditions
Lebanon’s powerful Shiite group Hezbollah has agreed to the International Monetary Fund potentially stepping in to help the country deal with its worst economic crisis in decades.
Hezbollah shifted position regarding aid from the International Monetary Fund in March. The powerful Lebanese group that previously strongly opposed IMF help said in mid-March that it may accept it after all.
“We will not accept submitting to (imperialist) tools … meaning we do not accept submitting to the International Monetary Fund to manage the crisis,” Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem had said in late February.
This statement came after the idea of foreign aid was proposed by the Lebanese government, as Lebanon struggles with its worst economic crisis in its history made even worse by the coronavirus, with the Lebanese currency losing more than half its value against the dollar in three months and the employment rates hitting rock bottom, coupled with a crisis in the banking sector that includes capital control rules that hinders holders from withdrawing money in dollars. On March 12, for the first time in six decades, Iran requested a loan from the IMF to fight a hard-hitting coronavirus outbreak.
Just one day after the Iranian request, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address that the group could accept IMF funding but under “reasonable conditions.”
