 Lebanon's economic crisis is once again in the news after banks were shut following a number of attempts by account holders to withdraw their money by force. The country's economy has been facing a series of crises for years now and even basic amenities such as the electricity network have collapsed. What are the reasons and symptoms of Lebanon's economic crisis? Naniya Khalik of Breakthrough News explains. So Lebanon has been dealing with an economic collapse since late 2019 when it was revealed that the country was basically bankrupt because of a Ponzi scheme economy that had been totally acceptable and fined by the international community for the last 30 years leading up to this collapse. But for a number of reasons both related to domestic local reasons as well as international policy from regional countries as well as the United States 2019 is when it kind of all fell apart. And ever since then Lebanon has been on this horrendous decline. It has yet to reach rock bottom but every few months it seems to reach a sort of new bottom. And so recently you have seen a pushback from some with these attempted bank robberies where what's been taking place in Lebanon is the banks have placed these these controls on people's ability to take their money out of the bank. So people have been limited into how much they can take out. So people's entire life savings that are still sitting in banks haven't been able to access more than like a few hundred dollars a month at most. And so people are becoming desperate because they have to pay for things. In some cases they have to pay for certain medical treatments for their kids schooling just for the basic things you need to survive that are going to be more than a few hundred dollars a month. So you had a few people in the last couple of months basically go to banks and in some cases use toy guns in some cases use real guns and demand their deposits back and some people were successful others not so successful banks shut down for about a week as a result to beef up their security. So now it's much more difficult for anybody to actually do that. But this is happening of course this is one of many crises taking place in Lebanon. There's also an ongoing issue over a maritime border dispute. There are gas fields off the Mediterranean that are partly in Lebanese waters partly in what's considered Israeli waters. And as you know the Israelis and the Lebanese are in a state of war. They do not negotiate or speak with each other. So there's been an American mediator who's been attempting to mediate basically demarcating the border in the sea so that both sides can start to exploit these gas resources. However Israel has already sent ships to go and attempt and start drilling before the negotiations have concluded. And those ships had planned to drill in what is considered Lebanese waters. So there is a fear that there could be a war in late October early November if a negotiation or a deal isn't reached. However right now that actually looks quite positive both sides seem to be saying that they're going to agree on what has been proposed as of now which is something that would be considered fair to both sides. And so we'll know by the end of October if that agreement does in fact go through. But of course in the lead up to this there's been a lot of controversy over the American mediator this guy almost Hodgstein who Joe Biden appointed who is actually not only just American but also Israeli and actually served in the Israeli military when he was younger. So that has of course been something that the Lebanese were pretty irritated about. But regardless his Bullah had stepped in at one point to basically threaten to go to war if Israel dares to drill in Lebanese waters before an agreement is reached. And that actually did act as a measure of deterrence the Israelis have not drilled. And it does look like the Israelis will agree to some sort of deal that the Lebanese can be OK with. And so that's happening in the backdrop of this ongoing economic collapse in Lebanon. There's also you've probably seen in the news there's been headlines about migrants fleeing Lebanon and dying in the Mediterranean trying to get to Italy. And I mean this is something that's increased the number of people paying these basically mafia bosses to get them on these boats that end up sinking. We were used to in the last decade having seen this with people in certain African countries people from Libya people from Syria these very destabilized countries destabilized oftentimes by wars aggravated by the United States. But in the case of Lebanon this is something relatively new that's been taking place in the past year or so. We're increasingly Lebanese as well as Palestinians and Syrians who live inside Lebanon. Let's remember Lebanon hosts many many refugees from these countries have been fleeing Lebanon particularly people from the north because the situation has just become so dire. There are no Lebanon has become a country of really two classes people who make dollars and people who make local currency. And because of hyperinflation because of the devaluation of the currency the currency has lost so much of its value. People's salaries have become worthless. And if you don't make dollars it's become very difficult to live I mean your entire monthly salary might get you a couple of bags of bread and that's it that's how bad it is for some people. So they feel they have no future and they're getting on these boats and risking death. And recently there was a boat that sank I believe something like 93 or 94 people died. Many of them were Palestinian Syrian Lebanese fleeing Lebanon. So this is a relatively new phenomenon really showing the desperation of people in Lebanon and meanwhile the international community is kind of just letting it happen. A lot of this is political you have countries like the Gulf States Saudi Arabia especially who would be happy they hate Hezbollah they see Lebanon as the home base for Hezbollah as what they'll say in their media they own a lot of the media in Lebanon and oftentimes you'll see this framing of Lebanon is occupied by Iran. And what they mean by that is that Hezbollah is has a lot of power in Lebanon because they're democratically elected and also they're this militant fighting group. And so a country like Saudi Arabia which is an arm of American imperialism that some of the region and has a lot of power in the region as a result of that they have a very hawkish policy towards Lebanon and just want to see it burn. They feel if the Lebanese Lebanon just completely collapses or like you know or just like you know is burnt down then that'll actually decrease the power of Hezbollah. And so countries like Saudi Arabia are refusing to help are pushing other Gulf state countries to refuse to aid Lebanon. So there's really no aid coming into Lebanon and it's a country that has no sources of revenue because Lebanon's main economy used to be its banks but its banks have collapsed. It doesn't produce anything. So that's why Lebanon is so desperate for this maritime border deal because it will have actual resources this gas to exploit. And I mean I just want to reemphasize that again this is happening as multiple crises take place. This economic collapse is literally collapsing every part of Lebanon every sector. You have electricity cuts that last over 20 hours a day forcing people to rely on these really unaffordable private generators that still don't give them 24 hour electricity. You have a constant telecom outages. You've got a lot of telecom companies people have been going on strike and you know that as a result they're not able to maintain the equipment. And you know these are important things to make a country function. And you have a lot of schools and universities in Lebanon starting to force students to pay tuition and dollars. Well many students can't afford to pay tuition and dollars. So it's just on and on and on life for the majority for most people the average person in Lebanon is becoming increasingly difficult. And that's why people want to leave. And it's really unfortunate because you know just a few years ago Lebanon was considered this kind of island of stability in this increasingly chaotic region just you know surrounded by war and now it looks like it's Lebanon that's becoming the sort of source of or a place of instability in the region. The economic crisis is intensifying even as there's political uncertainty in the country. Elections were held in May and Najib Mikati was chosen to form a government but the process continues to languish. What is the state of Lebanese politics and how is this affecting the country. Lebanon also has a government that has yet to be formed following elections earlier this year. And one of the problems at the moment is they're trying to agree on a new president. The problem is nobody really agrees on who they want to be president. And also you know Lebanon isn't it's it isn't isn't a sovereign country when it comes to its own political formations inside. Oftentimes when it comes to picking a prime minister or picking a president or anybody in a position of that sort of like top level of power there is a level of opinion taken from outside powers. So like it has to be somebody that the US is satisfied with and that the Saudis are satisfied with. And the Iranians don't really play so much of a role in suggesting who should or shouldn't be in power in Lebanon. So it has to be something sort of like many different international players agree on. And right now there is no agreement over that. Even Hezbollah and its ally ML aren't in agreement over who should be president. Even the so-called opposition meaning a lot of the pro-U.S. political parties like like Lebanese forces and Qatayib and the future party as well as the so-called independent parties which are honestly really just like pro-western parties at this point are in agreement over who the president should be. The president does need to be I mean one of the you know because of Lebanon has the sectarian system the president does need to be a Maronite Christian. But aside from that there's a lot of contention over that right now. And from what I understand from people I've been speaking to it's likely going to be something that is agreed to after the Maritime deal is negotiated. So I feel it seems as though a lot of the sort of political deadlock in Lebanon is going to remain deadlocked at least until the end of October early November when hopefully an agreement is reached for the Israelis over the border demarcation because people are also waiting to see who gets to take credit for that. People you know if it works out every party is going to come forward and try to take credit for it. And if it doesn't work out you don't want to be the party who's been kind of pretending to be like oh I'm in charge of these negotiations. So various political players are just kind of waiting it out to see where the political wins are and how these negotiations go to see how they want to move forward.