Lebanese cabinet to meet on Saturday


Reuters | Beirut | Updated: 09-08-2019 22:04 IST | Created: 09-08-2019 21:52 IST
Lebanese cabinet to meet on Saturday
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  • Lebanon

Lebanon's cabinet will meet for the first time in weeks on Saturday, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Friday, after rival Druze politicians held a reconciliation meeting to end a crisis that paralyzed the government.

Lebanese dollar-denominated bonds rallied earlier on Friday on the news that the country's leaders would meet to reconcile Walid Jumblatt and Talal Arslan. In a televised statement Hariri said reconciliation had taken place between the two.

"God willing, from today onwards, there will be a new page and we will all cooperate together in the interests of the country and in the interests of the Lebanese citizen," he said. Hariri was speaking after a meeting between Lebanon's top officials to discuss the economy, and he said they were committed to approving the 2020 budget on time and sticking to the 2019 budget, which was passed last month.

The standoff between Jumblatt and Arslan's political parties was sparked by a shooting in the Chouf mountains on June 30 in which two aides of a government minister, Saleh al-Gharib, an ally of Arslan, were killed. With both sides represented in Hariri's cabinet, the government was unable to convene, complicating efforts to enact reforms that are urgently needed to steer the country away from a financial crisis.

 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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