The seat of the Lebanese Parliament, in downtown Beirut. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Bank depositors gathered Tuesday morning in Downtown Beirut near Parliament to again protest against the draft law on capital control.
Here’s what we know:
• According to the local TV channel MTV, protesters prevented some deputies from arriving at Parliament for a joint parliamentary committee session of the Finance and Budget Committee and the Administration and Justice Committee scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. The committee members are due to discuss the bill, which will introduce exceptional and temporary restrictions on bank withdrawals.
• Dozens of angry depositors also gathered in Downtown last Wednesday to protest the draft law.
• The draft law on capital control aims to legalize and standardize banking restrictions put in place at the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019. That law’s approval is one of the conditions required by the International Monetary Fund to implement the preliminary agreement reached with Lebanon last week to provide the country with $3 billion over four years.
• Lebanon continues to sink into an unprecedented economic crisis that is now almost three years old. More than 80 percent of the population now lives below the poverty line, and depositors are struggling to withdraw enough money to meet their needs due to ad hoc restrictions currently imposed.