BEIRUT:  Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab has warned that the country is hurtling toward a “social explosion” and appealed to the international community for assistance to prevent the demise of the nation facing multiple crises.

Diab’s plea came as he spoke to diplomats in Lebanon, where politicians have failed to agree on forming a new government, nearly a year after Diab’s Cabinet resigned. His government has been acting in a caretaker capacity since August 2020, when he stepped down following a massive explosion at the Beirut port that only compounded the country’s crises. He pleaded

friendly nations to extend assistance despite the lack of a new government, saying that linking aid to reform of a deeply corrupt system has become a “threat to the lives of Lebanese” and to the country’s stability.

The World Bank called it one of the worst crises since 1850s and described Lebanon’s economic contraction as brutal. Inflation and unemployment soared and waves of professionals have migrated abroad, seeking a better life. The political crisis is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a post-civil war political class that has accumulated debt and done little to encourage local industries. Banks, once the country’s booming sector, have imposed informal capital controls and depositors are unable to freely access their accounts.

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