The American envoy Tom Barrack during his meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on July 7, 2025. (Credit: Ibrahim Amro/AFP)
U.S. presidential envoy Tom Barrack did not mince words during a brief interview with L’Orient-Le Jour before leaving Beirut, bluntly stating: “Yes, the Lebanese bank is among those obstructing reforms.”Speaking from the private lounge at Beirut's international airport, the American diplomat — also ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria — expressed deep concern over Lebanon’s worsening economic and institutional paralysis. He pointed to a collapsing financial system with more than $70 billion in losses, no functioning central bank and a government unable to meet its massive sovereign debt obligations.Barrack stressed the urgency of deciding how to absorb those losses and fully restructure Lebanon’s banking system. He also denounced the continued refusal of certain political actors to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF)...
U.S. presidential envoy Tom Barrack did not mince words during a brief interview with L’Orient-Le Jour before leaving Beirut, bluntly stating: “Yes, the Lebanese bank is among those obstructing reforms.”Speaking from the private lounge at Beirut's international airport, the American diplomat — also ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria — expressed deep concern over Lebanon’s worsening economic and institutional paralysis. He pointed to a collapsing financial system with more than $70 billion in losses, no functioning central bank and a government unable to meet its massive sovereign debt obligations.Barrack stressed the urgency of deciding how to absorb those losses and fully restructure Lebanon’s banking system. He also denounced the continued refusal of certain political actors to meet International...
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