Diab Says 'Thugs Belong in Jail', Security Room to Oversee 'Dollar Mechanism'

Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Monday underscored that “thugs belong in jail,” referring to those who carried out acts of rioting in Beirut and Tripoli over the past days.

Diab was speaking during a financial-security meeting that he chaired at the Grand Serail to “follow up on the current security situations and control the U.S. dollar exchange rate,” the National News Agency said.

Describing the acts of vandalization in Beirut and Tripoli as a “disaster,” the premier warned that “what happened undermines all the foundations of the state.”

“I will not tolerate at all this violation of streets, people’s properties and the state’s properties, or the attempt to undermine security stability,” Diab underscored.

He added that he insists that security agencies and the judiciary should seek the arrest of “any person who took part in this crime, whether in Beirut, Tripoli or any other region.”

“If these people don’t get arrested, there won’t be a meaning for the presence of the entire state. Thugs’ job is vandalization and they belong in jail. Period,” Diab went on to say.

On the financial front, the PM urged “a complete and integrated security and judicial probe” into the dollar exchange rate fluctuations.

“The presence of a crime without criminals is unacceptable… and I’m personally convinced and I have certain information that what happened was deliberate,” Diab said.

The conferees meanwhile discussed the mechanism that was approved by Cabinet with the aim of gradually lowering the dollar exchange rate, agreeing to “set up an operations room at the General Directorate of General Security to follow up on the issue.”

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh for his part said that the central bank is committed to pumping dollars into the market, as it was underlined that licensed money exchange shops should abide by the regulations of their union.

“The central bank should supply them with dollars to prevent the fall of these dollars into the hands of currency manipulators or their smuggling to abroad,” the conferees said.