A “normal day” for the governor in his office, and anxiety prevails among his team of aides

The Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, continued his work without any modification to his programs, and yesterday, in his office at the Central Bank, he made decisions, including giving work licenses to digital financial companies, and chaired the weekly meeting of the Central Council, which lasted for more than two hours, and informed those present that the arrest warrant is baseless. legally against her, and that he will confront her according to the legal requirements. Sources in the bank told Al-Akhbar that he talked for a long time with the employees and his deputies about various matters, while no one dared to ask him about the matter.

In contrast to Salama’s calmness, the tension was evident among the employees working in his private office, and among the managers, especially the Director of External Operations, Noman N’Dour, the Director of Development and Organization, Raja Abu Asali, and the Executive Director of the Finance Unit, Wael Hamdan. As they fear the repercussions of the investigations and the decisions issued against them, since they formed – each according to his position – the assistant team to the ruler and the convoys for all his violations.

As for the first investigating judge in Beirut, Charbel Abu Samra, it seems that his plan focuses on buying time for the ruler. And while a session was supposed to be held today to interrogate the ruler in the file transferred to him by Judge Raja Hamoush after the prosecution of Salama, his brother Raja, and his assistant, Marianne Howayek, judicial sources indicate that the session will be devoted to deciding on the formal defenses submitted by the representative of Salama against the head of the Cases Authority in the Ministry of Justice, the judge. Helena Alexander.

In parallel to the above, there is still talk between bankers and economists about the possibility of affecting Lebanon’s banking relationship with correspondent banks abroad, and what this means in terms of cutting Lebanon’s economic ties in terms of import operations and financial transfers. However, banking sources confirmed to Al-Akhbar that this issue is directly related to an American decision, as severing the correspondent banks’ relationship with the Banque du Liban and the banks is a purely political decision.

The sources tend to consider that the Americans are still protecting Salameh and excluding him from any sanctions. Rather, he is still working under their command, as evidenced by the green light that was recently given to him to work with Circular 165 and open clearing in dollars within the Banque du Liban. Consequently, there are no indications that directives have been given to correspondent banks to stop dealing with the Lebanese state.