Amin Salam told Rudaw’s Hawar Abdulrazaq on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in Dubai that field assessments indicate that Lebanon faces “somewhere between $25-30 billion worth of destruction and indirect negative effects on the economy.”
The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began on October 8, a day after the eruption of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, when Hezbollah launched a “back-up front” from the Lebanese side to ease pressure on its Palestinian allies in Gaza.
The Hezbollah-Israel war intensified after Tel Aviv in mid-September carried out the “Pagers Operation,” remotely detonating communication devices used by members of the Lebanese group, and later killed Hezbollah's secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on a residential neighbourhood in Beirut.
The war continued until November 27 when the two sides reached a ceasefire deal that was central to United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, which requires the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and the disarmament of all Lebanese armed groups - including Hezbollah. However, Lebanon has repeatedly accused Israel of violating the ceasefire deal by continuing to launch sporadic strikes on Lebanese territories and maintain its forces in south Lebanon border villages.
Salam asserted to Rudaw Lebanon’s “main international commitment” to uphold UN resolution 1701 in the coming months, hoping that the war would end soon following “the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces” from southern Lebanon by February 18.
The ex-minister further highlighted that the Hezbollah-Israel war erupted at a time when Lebanon had already been grappling with the stifling economic crisis that began five years ago and saw Lebanon's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline by more than 38 percent, according to the World Bank.
The Lebanese Presidency announced on Saturday the formation of a new government consisting of 24 ministers, following weeks of intensive consultations amid changes in the political balance of power after Hezbollah was weakened by the devastating war with Israel.
According to Salam, the newly-formed Lebanese government has “a major economic project and agenda” to implement. While Lebanon is receiving “a lot of international support” from its “allies and friends in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the United States and other European countries to get back on its feet,” Beirut “has a lot of work it needs to do,” Salam explained.
