LEBANON IS MISSING BASIC COMPONENT OF STATE- A GOVERNMENT: A country mired in economic collapse and security challenges, and gripped by a pandemic that it’s ill-prepared to deal with, is also contending with a surreal situation: It has no government. Seven months of political stalemate in Lebanon are worsening the huge economic crisis it faces. Now, the country’s chief Western patron and the former colonial occupier, France, has increased pressure on Lebanese leaders to form a government and end the ‘deliberate obstruction’ by demands that are unreasonable and out-of-date. Lebanon’s venal political class has been at loggerheads about the shape and size of a new Cabinet, while the country is falling into an abyss. Few expect the politicians to change their behaviour, unfortunately. [COMMENT BY: Omar Shariff, International Editor]
AP