economy

Lebanese PM Pushes Border Crackdown and Security Coordination During Damascus Visit

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam concluded his visit to Damascus on Saturday by emphasizing tighter border controls, anti-smuggling efforts, and expanded Lebanese-Syrian security coordination, signaling a shift in Beirut’s approach toward Syria amid growing pressure over Hezbollah-linked activity along the border. Speaking at the end of ...

Award-Winning Filmmaker Panahi: Iran Protests “To Move History Forward”

Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi said Wednesday that protests, which have gripped his country in recent days, aimed "to move history forward." "Shared pain has now become a cry in the street," said the director who won the Cannes Film Festival's top prize this year and has been nominated for an Oscar for his film It Was Just an ...

Tehran Shopkeepers Shut Stores Over Economic Hardship, Currency Volatility

Some shopkeepers in Tehran closed their stores on Monday in protest against economic hardships and sharp swings in Iran's embattled currency, Iranian media reported, following similar demonstrations a day earlier. State news agency IRNA said some shopkeepers and traders at Tehran's bazaar "have closed or partially closed their stores," adding ...

Cabinet Approves The Gap Law

On Friday, Lebanon’s Cabinet approved the Gap Law after a vote in which 13 ministers supported the measure and nine opposed it, according to official information. Those who voted against the law included ministers from the Lebanese Forces, Hezbollah, and the Amal Movement, as well as Minister Adel Nassar and the Minister of Youth and ...

The IMF Sets an Example Through Lebanese Depositors: Unpacking One the Most Dangerous Laws in the Country’s History

What the government presented as the ‘Financial Gap Law’ is not merely a piece of financial legislation; it is a text that lays the foundations for the post-adoption economic order. It does not conceal its objective but states it calmly: ending a crisis that has lasted for years instead of resolving it, writing off deposits instead of ...

Gap Law: The Programmed Destruction of the Banking Sector

Presented as a restructuring measure, the Gap Law organizes a methodical liquidation of the Lebanese banking sector. Behind complex technical mechanisms—loss hierarchy, balance-sheet cleanup, recapitalization—lies a clear political choice: to sacrifice banks to settle a public crisis that the state refuses to assume. This text does not reform ...

Gap Law: A Legalized Expropriation of Deposits

Wrapped in the technical language of financial restructuring, the Gap Law is presented as a necessary step to correct the imbalance of Lebanon’s banking system. Behind this rhetoric lies a far more serious reality: the legalization of a massive expropriation of bank deposits, in blatant disregard of property rights, legal certainty, and the very ...

The Law of Financial “Massacre”: When Nawaf Salam and “Kulluna Irada” Strip Depositors of Their Savings

At one of the darkest moments in Lebanon’s national life, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is promoting a so-called “financial gap law” as a technical solution, while in reality it legalizes suffering and formalizes the confiscation of Lebanese citizens’ savings. The so-called “Kulluna Irada” law does not merely steal money; it also ...

Gap Law: How the Lebanese State Erases Its Responsibility

Every financial crisis raises a central question: who should bear the losses? In a liberal economy grounded in responsibility, the answer is clear: those who decided, spent, borrowed, and ultimately failed. The Gap Law, however, offers a radically opposite answer. It methodically organizes the erasure of the Lebanese state’s responsibility and ...

Gap Law: Nawaf Salam and the IMF, Architects of a Legalized Spoliation

By claiming on Monday a commitment to “deliver justice to depositors,” Prime Minister Nawaf Salam did more than distort reality: with the active backing of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he sealed one of the greatest financial and moral abdications in Lebanon’s history. The Gap Law, presented as a lifesaving legal framework, is in ...

The Syndicate of Traders and Importers of Alcoholic Beverages Denounces the Gap Law

The Syndicate of Traders and Importers of Alcoholic Beverages issued a statement on Saturday denouncing the Gap Law, which they said shifts the state’s responsibilities onto traders and businesses. “While respecting the draft presented by the Prime Minister concerning financial restructuring and the recovery of deposits, the currently ...