Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with the four vice governors of Banque du Liban (BDL) at the Grand Serail on July 24, 2023. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati met on Monday with the four vice governors of Banque du Liban (BDL) ahead of the scheduled end of BDL Governor Riad Salameh's 30-year term this month.
Also at the meeting, in Beirut's Grand Serail, were caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami and caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil.
The four vice governors — Wassim Mansouri, Bachir Yakzan, Salim Chahine and Alexandre Moradian — have been meeting with top officials lately to urge for the appointment of a successor to Salameh. They have also presented a strategy to float the Lebanese lira in the coming months.
Salameh is widely blamed as a main culprit behind Lebanon's financial crisis, and is also the target of a series of legal proceedings in Lebanon and Europe, complicating any prospect of him remaining in office after July 31.
The BDL vice governors have threatened to resign if a successor is not duly appointed, a controversial issue amid the country's presidential vacuum and no fully-empowered cabinet.