Naharnet

Geagea: Bank storming operations and chaos are 'their Lebanon'

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea appeared Friday to disapprove of the wave of bank heists that occurred throughout the day.

“The bank storming operations that occurred today and the chaos that accompanied them are their Lebanon,” Geagea tweeted.

“No one can pull us out of their Lebanon into the Lebanon that we aspire for other than a salvation president. Anything else would be a waste of time,” the LF leader added.

At least five banks were stormed by depositors on Friday, prompting the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) to declare a three-day strike and caretaker Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi to call for an emergency meeting of the Central Internal Security Council

The confirmed incidents raise the number of bank heists this week in Lebanon to seven. The savings of depositors in the country have been devalued and trapped in banks for almost three years amid a crippling economic crisis.

They are usually acts of economic desperation by depositors with no criminal record trying to settle bills, and have drawn wide sympathy among the general public.

Lebanon has been battered by one of its worst-ever economic crises.

Its currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value on the black market, while poverty and unemployment have soared.

Source: Naharnet


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