Bassil: We know that Samir Geagea is a puppet of foreign powers

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The leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), Gebran Bassil, slammed the Lebanese Central Bank Governor, Riad Salameh, stressing that the latter is politically immune from any corruption charges.

“He is the head of the financial system and as a battle-leading officer who carried out the largest organized robbery of people’s money," he added.

In a televised press conference on Sunday, Bassil accused the governor of rebelling against the Cabinet's decision.

“The Central Bank Governor prevented the forensic audit of the Central Bank accounts and sabotaged the financial recovery plan and negotiations with the IMF so as not to expose the Bank's financial gap,” he noted.

The top Lebanese figure went on to say that “attempts to isolate Hezbollah did not stop, the last of which was on October 17, with the aim of weakening us by removing the Christian protection from the party, according to what [former US ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey] Feltman expressed in his testimony at the US Congress.”

Bassil has also stressed that “we chose Mar Mikhael over Tayouneh because we know that Samir Geagea is a puppet for foreign powers, most notably for "Israel" and the US.”

While noting that “the FPM signed an understanding with Hezbollah and not with Amal movement," Bassil made it clear that his movement does not want “to cancel or tear up the memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah because it is good and its provisions are stable and patriotic.”

It is worth mentioning that the Lebanese parliament has lately voted to hold parliamentary elections on March 27.

The elections were expected to be held in May; however, they will be held earlier than usual after a Parliament session called by Speaker Nabih Berri. The session began with the election of Parliament's office.

Lebanon has been suffering from a severe and prolonged economic depression during the past two years which led to a record collapse in the value of the local currency against the dollar, as well as shortages of basic supplies, including fuel and medicine, and restrictions on bank withdrawals and transfers, particularly in foreign currency.