Former President Michel Aoun affirmed, “The first goal is to fight the corrupt who brought us to this situation that despaired the Lebanese and pushed them to emigrate,” pointing out that “the reward of the life of the Lebanese was lost… they stole it.”
And he stressed, during the General Assembly of the youth sector in the Free Patriotic Movement, entitled “The Story is No,” at the “Liqa’” Center in Rabwah, that “the financial and economic situation we are living in is actually what we were fighting to avoid, and we fought for it.” Judicial investigation into public money, criminal audit, and now there is an international investigation into the crimes of the Governor of the Banque du LibanRiyad Salameh, and it was found that he was the “first thief”, and that he committed all financial crimes from embezzlement and money laundering to forgery and the use of counterfeiters. He emphasized that “Salama committed all these things, and today he needs someone to protect him, and he, in turn, protects them.”
Aoun indicated, “We have to complete the path, because the ruling system cannot rebuild Lebanon after what it destroyed, and today they are thinking of renewing the governor of the Banque du Liban,” warning of “this step, which will be the end of Lebanon, and the final blow that will bring it down completely.” He pointed out, “In a quick review, we find that those who stood against me today are the same ones who were against me in the period 1990-1989, because they fear for their interests.”
He stated that “they say that I am a provocateur, because they want to bring in a silent, ‘domesticated’ president. Yes, I was a provocateur, because my words were always about reform and holding the corrupt accountable and those who protect them,” explaining that “at this stage, the nature of our jihad and our defense of the homeland changed. In the first stage it was Against an occupier that we want to get rid of, and today there is a ruling group that has impoverished us and we want to get rid of it.”
