BEIRUT, Aug. 9 The escalation of the war with Israel could send Lebanese back to the Stone Age, with the country's banking sector remaining paralyzed, Lebanese Finance Minister Amin Salami said on Friday.
«Anyone who says Lebanon can withstand this situation for more than a month shows their ignorance, as a war could return the country to the Stone Age and lead the Lebanese to a dark and dangerous place. The banking sector is in a state of permanent paralysis, and the exchange rate is subject to serious fluctuations,» Salami said.
The minister explained that the war has worsened the crisis, and it is now impossible to talk about economic growth or prosperity in the manufacturing sectors. Just rebuilding the thousands of farmlands and lands burned by Israel will cost the state billions of dollars, he noted.
«Tourism has fallen sharply and indefinitely during the peak season after many people refrained from traveling to Lebanon, the workforce is fleeing abroad, and there are no job opportunities at home,» the minister added.
Last week, a senior Shiite movement commander, Fuad Shukr, was killed in Israeli air strikes on a Beirut suburb. The apartment building he was in was completely destroyed. Sixty-eight civilians were injured. The movement's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in his last speech that Hezbollah was moving to a new level of fighting Israel and intended to strike back strongly. Later, the head of the Palestinian Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran, for whose death Iran threatened to retaliate against Israel. The Israeli leadership has declared its readiness to launch massive strikes against Lebanon in the event of an attack by Iran and its allied resistance movements in the region.
The active armed confrontation between Hezbollah and the Israeli army has been ongoing since October 8 last year, after the IDF launched a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip.