Lebanon

Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh maintained his innocence Friday following a second and final day of questioning in Beirut before European ...

Salameh "answered all the questions" and "pledged to provide all the documents tracing the sources of his wealth" as well as the addresses of people mentioned in the questioning sessions, a judicial official told AFP. For procedural reasons, the European investigators submitted their questions to a Lebanese judge, who was then responsible for putting them to Salameh in their presence, a judicial source previously told AFP. "Funds from the Lebanese central bank were not transferred to my account," he said in a statement, adding: "The transfers I made abroad, whatever the amount, were from my personal account."

Lebanon's central bank governor Riad Salameh arrived at court on Friday for a second hearing with European investigators looking into whether he embezzled.

[Middle East](/News/middle-east) European officials have yet to charge them. [Support for Lebanon central bank governor frays: Sources](https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2023/03/14/Support-for-Lebanon-central-bank-governor-frays-Sources) [AlArabiya](/) [Lebanon crisis](/tools/kickers?kicker=Lebanon crisis)

Lebanon's powerful commander of General Security formally ended as he reached retirement age. Is elected office next?

For a figure with as much popularity as the former GSO director, both amongst political elites and the people, to not see his term extended is another marked institutional failure in a long line of shortcomings for the Lebanese government. [brutal treatment](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/03/lebanon-torture-of-syrian-refugees-arbitrarily-detained-on-counter-terror-charges/) of Syrians offers enough to reject Ibrahim as an official. [reports](https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4188386/lebanon-major-general-abbas-ibrahim-bids-farewell-general-security-eyes-foreign) have highlighted the foreign ministry as a natural landing spot for the adept general, given his strong cross-cutting relationships. Such a move would explain the group’s public admission of failure to renew Ibrahim’s term—an uncommon sentiment rarely expressed by Hezbollah—as it would suggest they possibly received something in return for the retirement. It is no secret that Berri is likely nearing the final years of his political career at eighty-five years of age. The foreign ministry is typically held by a Christian, and is a highly demanded ministry alongside others such as the ministries of finance and the interior. While Amal is the natural and historic go-to partner for Hezbollah as the other major Shi’ite party in Lebanon, Berri is regularly crowded out by Ibrahim as Hezbollah’s preferred There is currently a substantial divide between two establishment camps—one led by the right-wing, Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) and once led by the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah—that has ultimately produced no qualified majority vote (two-thirds of parliament, or 86 of 128 votes) for a candidate. Namely, this falls to the head of the Shi’ite Amal Party and Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, who is reported to have To be sure, however, Ibrahim’s forced retirement is not strictly a coincidental result of adjacent parliamentary politics and Hezbollah expending far too much political capital on other issues. This has mainly included MPs from Christian parties—interestingly including the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), a Hezbollah ally. This proved even more difficult given the state of deadlock in the parliament because of disagreements over Lebanon’s next president.