Paris conference pledges over $7,6bn for Lebanon
Lebanon won more than $7,6-billion on Thursday to help it cope with a debt mountain and recover from war — and, some donors hope, to help its United States-backed government weather a growing threat from Hezbollah-led opponents.
Saudi Arabia headed the list of donors with a promise of $1,1-billion of development aid and grants, the United States pledged $770-million and the Arab Monetary Fund and World Bank offered funding of about $700-million apiece.
”The total sum collected for Lebanon amounts to a little more than $7,6-billion,” French President Jacques Chirac told the conference after about 40 countries and organisations outlined their funding plans at the one-day meeting.
”I’m overjoyed by this,” he added to loud applause.
Lebanon is still struggling to rebuild after its 1975 to 1990 civil war and is weighed down by $40-billion of debt, equal to 180% of gross domestic product.
War between Israel and Shi’ite Hezbollah guerrillas last year left much of the country’s infrastructure bombed and many Shi’ite villages and districts wrecked.
The conference comes amid new political violence in Lebanon. An opposition student was shot dead at a Beirut university on Thursday, bringing to at least four the death toll in clashes this week during a general strike called by the Hezbollah-led opposition in an effort to oust the government.
”The people of Lebanon deserve to live in peace. They deserve to make decisions about their political future free from the threat of violence and free from political intimidation,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the conference.
”The United States is dedicated to this task. We will help to defend democracy in Lebanon.”
Hezbollah has accused Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of being in the pocket of the West and Lebanon’s pro-opposition al-Akhbar daily said on Thursday the Paris conference was designed to help the government, not the country.
But donor countries stressed they were making funds available for the whole country and Siniora dismissed suggestions that his administration was the sole beneficiary.
”This conference, and the results, are for all the Lebanese,” he said. ”This is going to extend over a number of years and the benefit is going to accrue to all Lebanese governments, ultimately to all the Lebanese.
Cost of war
”After Israel’s onslaught on our country we are now on the edge of a deep recession,” Siniora told delegates, adding that his government would stand firm against the Hezbollah-led protests and try to enact a planned financial reform.
Hezbollah is funded by Shi’ite Iran and has promised to provide its own financial aid to the war victims. Western and Arab leaders are anxious to show the Lebanese people that they have deeper pockets and are not about to abandon the country.
The amount pledged on Thursday easily exceeded the $4,2-billion offered at a previous donors’ conference for Lebanon in Paris in 2002. On that occasion the United States refused to make any firm commitments, in stark contrast to 2006.
”We will help to defend democracy in Lebanon,” Rice told the meeting.
Full details of the various aid packages were not immediately available and it was not clear how many of the pledges were loans, grants or gifts.
Some donors are likely to link their aid offers to Siniora’s ability to push through the potentially unpopular reform package unveiled this month, which includes plans for privatisations, cutting state spending and hiking taxes.
”Even in times of great despair our determination has never diminished. We have faith in the people of Lebanon,” Siniora said. — Reuters