by Dana Halawi
BEIRUT, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese experts agreed that the United States is benefiting from the current crisis in Lebanon that has pleagued the nation for nearly a month.
Some believed that the U.S. is reponsible for creating the financial crisis in Lebanon which incited the nationwide protests, while others said even the U.S. is not directly involved though it may benefit from such developments.
Hezbollah Leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah emphasized in his speech on Tuesday that the U.S. was behind Lebanon's nationwide protests which have started since Oct. 17 and led to the resignation of the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
The Hezbollah is backed by Iran, which has been in a tense standoff with the U.S. since last year after Washington pulled out from the Iranian nuclear deal and restored suffocating sanctions on Iran.
Nasrallah also held the U.S. accountable for the weak Lebanese economy by creating obstacles in Lebanon's economic cooperation with other countries such as Iran and Russia while preventing Lebanon from receiving donations from other countries.
Rafic Nasrallah, director of the Lebanese International Center for Media and Research, told Xinhua that he believed that the U.S. has "a direct link" to the prevailing financial crisis in Lebanon.
"The U.S. has imposed sanctions against prominent Hezbollah figures and a well-known Lebanese bank, causing panic among people who flocked to the banks to withdraw their money," he said.
The U.S. Treasury has since July slapped sanctions on three key Hezbollah figures, including two members of Lebanese parliament. On Aug. 29, it imposed sanctions on the Jammal Trust Bank for what it said "brazenly enabling" Hezbollah's financial activities.
Lebanon's Central Bank declared three days ago that around 3 billion U.S. dollars were withdrawn from Lebanese banks in the past few months.
Rafic Nasrallah explained that the U.S. is putting financial pressure on Lebanon to create social instability which hurts Hezbollah's reputation.
"The U.S. aims to create a public opinion against Hezbollah especially among the Shiite community in Lebanon by imposing sanctions against Lebanese companies owned by Shiite people. This way, people will believe that if it wasn't for Hezbollah they wouldn't have faced financial pressure," he explained.
Over the past few months, Lebanon has been witnessing an economic and financial crisis that has led to worsening living conditions among the Lebanese.
On one hand, the growth rate was estimated at zero this year due to the lack of investments in productive sectors in Lebanon such as agriculture and industry, which caused a sharp rise in unemployment rate.
On another hand, the Lebanese market witnessed a shortage of U.S. dollars due to the economic slowdown and the drop in cash injections from Lebanese abroad, reducing the central bank's foreign currency reserves.
In response, Lebanese banks put restrictions on dollar withdrawals and exchanging Lebanese pounds to U.S. dollars.
As a result, a big number of Lebanese companies faced difficulties to pay for their imports, many of them had to close their doors.
The accumulation of economic and financial problems prompted over 2 million people to take to the streets to protest against the failing policies of successive governments.
Youssef Diab, a political analyst, blamed the wrong policies by successive governments in Lebanon for creating the current crisis in the country.
He said there is still no proof showing direct intervention by the U.S. in Lebanon's economic crisis, but adding that the U.S. will definitely benefit from it.
"The U.S. will benefit from Lebanon's deterioration and it will attempt to invest in it because America is well aware that the ongoing protests will impact Hezbollah and weaken the Shiite political party especially among its community," Diab said.
He said that Lebanon has never seen Shiite people burning Hezbollah's flags and photos of Amal Leader Nabih Berri in southern areas of the country.
"This means that what has happened in Lebanon lately has benefitted the U.S.," he said.
He also explained that the U.S. can save Lebanon from its current situation by sending a signal to Gulf countries to stand by Lebanon financially, but Washington does not want to do this because it is well aware that sovereign decisions in Lebanon are currently made by Hezbollah.
For his part, political analyst Rajeh Khoury ruled out a possible intervention by the U.S. in Lebanon's latest events.
"I do not think that the U.S. is behind these events because, if the U.S. aimed at causing an economic crisis in Lebanon, it wouldn't have offered any military aid to the Lebanese army during the past few years," he said.
