Due to a deadlock in the lebanese government france and by extension the eu has threatened sanctions against them. After Lebanon’s former president’s term ended last October their government has not been able to elect a new lease which has led to rampant corruption and extreme misallocation of funds that has caused an economic crisis with Lebanon’s currency losing much of its value. Multiple countries that have a hand in the Lebanese government met in Paris to discuss the situation. These countries included the United States, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and france. they weren’t able to come to an agreement on a candidate to back but talks are still to be had. Sanctions as of this moment haven’t been imposed but as the economic and political crisis worsens its will become more and more likely.
Lebanon is having a very terrible time right now. with their government in a deadlock they are suffering a terrible economic crisis. the price of their currency has fallen and lost 90% of its value. This comes as corruption has grown throughout the government and money laundering is becoming an increasingly big issue. Another issue this has caused is the banks failing with it being so bad that some banks are not allowing people to withdraw foreign currency right now. and this issue can really be fixed right now because with no president they cant put anything in place as of this moment and corrupt government members obviously wouldn’t want things to change. So this is where the sanctions come into place and I do believe they may actually happen because it’s gotten this way without anything changing. I don’t know why the corrupt members would fix it now unless mass protests start to happen. So I would expect for sanctions to happen and for eventually Lebanon and other countries to come behind somebody to elect president.
What this connects back to that we discussed in class is how people won’t bite the hand that feeds them. We literally talked about it last class and I think it’s relevant to this story because these corrupt officials aren’t going to attack the very institution that’s allowing them to be blatantly corrupt. and as corruption grows it’ll become more and more commonplace to do things like launder money and misspend the budget because no member will call them out on it. it also connects to puppet government and allies. as lebanon’s president is elected with a bit of help from other countries that get behind persons and so they want a specific leader that’ll help and strengthen ties with them obviously so it throws another wrench in the proper running o and political institution