Ariana News agency-\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n On Thursday Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the country would ask for aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the government adopted an economic rescue plan.<\/p>\n Here are some key facts about Lebanon, a small multi-confessional country wracked by years of political crisis, a weakened economy and the fallout of the Syrian conflict.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the first time in its history, Lebanon announced in March it was defaulting on its payments.<\/p>\n According to the ratings agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P), it is sagging under a debt of $92 billion, equal to nearly 170 percent of its gross domestic product, one of the highest debt ratios in the world.<\/p>\n Measures it has adopted to deal with the spread of the novel coronavirus have brought the economy to a near halt, via the closure of shops and restaurants.<\/p>\n Since October 2019, Lebanon has been rocked by mass protests against what is seen as a corrupt and incompetent political system.<\/p>\n Lebanon is ranked 137th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s corruption index.<\/p>\n The country lags in development in areas such as water supply, electricity production and waste treatment.<\/p>\n A welcome lifeline for Lebanon came in 2018, when aid pledges worth more than $11 billion were made at a Paris conference.<\/p>\n But the pledged money has been blocked due to a lack of promised reforms.<\/p>\n According to official figures, 45 percent of Lebanon’s population now lives below the poverty line.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The country with the cedar tree flag is one of the Middle East’s smallest, with an area of about 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 square miles).<\/p>\n Washed to the west by the Mediterranean, it shares borders with Syria and Israel.<\/p>\n Lebanon is considered relatively liberal in a generally conservative region, but religion remains all-important.<\/p>\n A crucible for 18 religious communities, its governance has been dictated by a power-sharing deal between the main sects.<\/p>\n Lebanon is a parliamentary republic, with a 128-member house split between Muslims and Christians.<\/p>\n In line with the “national pact” dating from independence in 1943, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite.<\/p>\n The country went through a civil war between 1975 and 1990 and was under Syrian guardianship from the 1990s until its troops withdrew in 2005.<\/p>\n Its political institutions have long been paralysed by disagreement between pro and anti-Syrians.<\/p>\n In 2013 the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah said it was fighting alongside the troops of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, its involvement dividing the Lebanese political scene even more.<\/p>\n Iran-backed Hezbollah is the sworn enemy of Israel, against which it fought a war in 2006.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Syria conflict has sporadically spilled over into Lebanon, with several attacks rocking the capital Beirut and other regions.<\/p>\n The most visible impact of the Syrian war in Lebanon, a country of around 4.5 million people, has been the influx of an estimated 1.5 million refugees.<\/p>\n Lebanon and international organisations have on several occasions sounded the alarm over the economic and social burden this massive inrush poses.<\/p>\n – Summer festivals –<\/p>\n Lebanon hosts three prestigious summer arts festivals — Baalbeck, Beiteddine and Byblos — which are major attractions for tourists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lebanon is mired in its worst economic and financial crisis since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war, exacerbated by the eruption in October 2019 of angry popular protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_mat_hreflang_tags":[],"addvideo":"","video_duration":"","farsit":"","target":"0","top_stories":"0","top":"0"},"categories":[305],"tags":[492],"class_list":["post-5256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","tag-lebanon"],"acf":{"myctype":"change","target":false,"top_stories":false,"top":false,"farsit":""},"yoast_head":"\nColossal debt\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Multi-confessional\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
-Syrian conflict spillover\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n