This Is Beirut has learned that the legal committee tasked by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam—in coordination with Finance Minister Yassine Jaber—with drafting the financial gap law is composed of a three-member team operating within the orbit of the Kulluna Irada organization. The committee includes attorney Ali Zbib, Judge Roula Al-Akkoum, and attorney Marwan Sakr, who is affiliated with the National Bloc party.
Parliamentary sources are astonished by the government’s and the Prime Minister’s intention to single-handedly control the drafting process, as well as by what they describe as the dubious agenda of the Kulluna Irada circles. According to these sources, these groups seek to eliminate bank capital, their shareholders, and even depositors’ funds in order to preserve a cash-based economy.
The same sources are also surprised by the exclusion of the Association of Banks from this committee, or even from taking part in discussions—especially given that a joint committee had been formed between the Association and the Ministry of Finance. However, according to the sources, the Finance Minister is deliberately sidelining this body and attempting to create rifts among bank owners by summoning some of them individually to meetings at the ministry.
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