BEIRUT: Lebanon’s cabinet on Thursday named asset manager Karim Souaid as central bank governor, official media reported, a post crucial to implementing economic reforms demanded by the international community.
He was appointed despite reservations of new reformist prime minister Nawaf Salam, who called on Souaid to commit to the government’s reform agenda in a country enduring a five-year economic collapse widely blamed on official mismanagement and corruption.
“The cabinet appointed Karim Souaid as central bank governor,” the official National News Agency said.
Born in 1964, Souaid officially takes over after embattled former chief Riad Salameh’s term expired in July 2023 with no designated successor.
Divided politicians had since failed to agree on a permanent replacement for Salameh, who has been accused at home and abroad of financial crimes.
First vice-governor Wassim Manssouri had been acting head of the central bank, a post that is traditionally reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system of governorship.
Souaid is the founder and managing partner at Gulf-based Growthgate, according to his biography on the private investment firm’s website.
It says he previously worked at financial establishments including HSBC Bank and has been involved in privatization initiatives in a number of Arab countries.
Some local media have reported that Souaid is close to the banking sector and members of Lebanon’s entrenched ruling class.
Salam said he had “reservations” about Souaid’s appointment but did not give specifics except to cite his “desire to protect depositors’ rights and preserve the state’s assets.”
He said Souaid “must adhere, from today, to the financial policy of our reformist government... on negotiating a new program with the International Monetary Fund, restructuring the banks, and presenting a comprehensive plan” to preserve depositors’ rights.
Lebanon’s new authorities need to carry out reforms demanded by the international community to unlock bailout funds.
The economic crash since 2019 has seen the local currency lose most of its value against the dollar and pushed much of the population into poverty, with people locked out of their savings.
Salam also said the cabinet approved Thursday “a draft law aiming to modify legislation on banking secrecy.”
In April 2022, Lebanon and the IMF reached conditional agreement on a $3-billion-dollar loan package, but painful reforms that the 46-month financing program would require have not been undertaken.
Earlier this month, the IMF welcomed the new Lebanese government’s request for support in addressing the country’s severe economic challenges.
In February, it said it was open to a new loan agreement with the country following discussions with its recently appointed finance minister.
Beirut-based think tank the Policy Initiative in a statement Wednesday said that the nomination of central bank chief would “test the new government’s commitment to genuine reform.”
“The next governor will shape Lebanon’s urgent reform agenda, serve as the main counterpart to the International Monetary Fund, and directly engage in sovereign debt restructuring negotiations” alongside the finance ministry, it said.
Souaid studied law at Lebanon’s St. Joseph University and at Harvard Law School in the United States, according to his biography.
He has also worked as a corporate finance attorney in New York, and is a member of the New York State Bar Association, it says.
The central bank governor in Lebanon is named by cabinet decree for a six-year mandate that can be renewed multiple times, based on the finance minister’s recommendation.
Lebanon cabinet appoints wealth manager central bank governor: official media
https://arab.news/4k6tk
Lebanon cabinet appoints wealth manager central bank governor: official media
- Souaid officially takes over after embattled former chief Riad Salameh’s term expired in July 2023 with no designated successor
Israel bars Al-Aqsa imam from entering mosque in Ramadan
- ‘This ban is a grave matter for us as our soul is tied to Al-Aqsa, Al-Aqsa is our life’
JERUSALEM: A senior imam of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem said on Tuesday that Israeli authorities had barred him from entering the compound, just days before the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
“I have been barred from the mosque for a week, and the order can be renewed,” Sheikh Muhammad Al-Abbasi said.
He said he was not informed of the reason for the ban, which came into effect from Monday.
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A Waqf source said 33 of its employees had been barred from entering the compound in the week leading up to Ramadan.
“I had only returned to Al-Aqsa a month ago after spending a year in the hospital following a serious car accident,” Abbasi said. “This ban is a grave matter for us, as our soul is tied to Al-Aqsa. Al-Aqsa is our life.”
On Monday, Israeli police said they had recommended issuing 10,000 permits for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, who require special permission to enter Jerusalem.
Arad Braverman, a senior Israeli police officer in occupied Jerusalem, said forces would be deployed “day and night” across the compound.
He said thousands of police would also be on duty for Friday prayers, which draw the largest crowds of Muslim worshippers.
The Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate said it had been informed that permits would again be restricted to men over 55 and women over 50, mirroring last year’s criteria.
It added that Israeli authorities had prevented the Islamic Waqf — the Jordanian-run body that administers the site — from carrying out routine preparations, including installing shade structures and setting up temporary medical clinics.
A Waqf source said 33 of its employees had been barred from entering the compound in the week leading up to Ramadan.
Under long-standing arrangements, Jews may visit the Al-Aqsa compound — but they are not permitted to pray there.
Palestinians fear the status quo it is being eroded.
In a separate development, Israeli NGOs have raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem’s borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967. Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The proposal, published in early February but reported by Israeli media only on Monday, comes as international outrage mounts over creeping measures aimed at strengthening Israeli control over the West Bank.
Critics say these actions by the Israeli authorities are aimed at the de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory.
The planned development, announced by Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing, is formally a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin, or Adam, settlement situated northeast of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
In a statement, the ministry said the development agreement included the construction of around 2,780 housing units for the settlement, with an investment of roughly $38.7 million.
But the area to be developed lies on the Jerusalem side of the separation barrier built by Israel in the early 2000s, while Geva Binyamin sits on the West Bank side of the barrier, and the two are separated by a road.
Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said there would be no “territorial or functional connection” between the area to be developed and the settlement.
“The new neighborhood will be integral to the city of Jerusalem,” Lior Amihai, Peace Now’s executive director, said.
“What is unique about that one is that it will be connected directly to Jerusalem, but it will be beyond the annexed municipal border. So it will be in complete West Bank territory, but just adjacent to Jerusalem,” he said.
