Hizbullah Urges 'Solidarity' with Govt. on Eurobond Decision

A senior Hizbullah official announced Sunday that his party “backs the government in its decision related to the Eurobonds,” urging the people and all political forces to “show solidarity with it and support its stance.”

Everyone should “cooperate with it so that it takes its decisions bravely, away from intimidation and blackmail,” the deputy head of Hizbullah’s Executive Council, Sheikh Ali Daamoush, said.

“The government’s decision not to pay the dues and to restructure the debt instead is less negative than paying, because paying without finding solutions to secure liquidity might lead to bankruptcy and to heading to the International Monetary Fund to be subject to its conditions,” Daamoush said.

“Can Lebanon and the Lebanese bear the conditions of the IMF?” he wondered.

He warned that the IMF would impose conditions such as “hiking the (VAT) tax to 20%, selling the state’s properties, privatizing institutions and floating the Lebanese pound.”

Daamoush added: “When we announced that we are against heading to the IMF, some parties unleashed the media mouthpieces against us, although we are not against the IMF as a financial institution but rather against placing Lebanon under the international fund’s tutelage, dictations and conditions, the same as we are against the tutelage of any international or regional side over Lebanon.”

“We don’t want our country to lose its sovereignty and national decision under the pressure of the financial and economic crisis, at a time that there are solutions that can prevent collapse without putting the country under any side’s hegemony or burdening the people with new taxes,” Daamoush went on to say.

He said the alternative course requires “a national will and understandings in addition to bold decisions.”