Jihad Azour

Dr. Jihad Azour, Lebanon’s Minister of Finance, sat down with Executive on July 29 to discuss the roles of the government and his ministry in the current war: their efforts in relief and diplomacy, how choices made in the past year have helped them meet these challenges, and what lies ahead for the economy and the state of Lebanon. E In the coming months, everyone will be competing to adopt the issues of relief and support. The government must lead these efforts, otherwise many people may fall in the hands of other groups that want to benefit from their misery. What is your strategy for relief?It’s a very challenging task. For the first few weeks, the government was the only provider of supplies. All the aid came from the government, through the High Relief Committee. However, due to the acceleration of the displacement, the destruction of roads, Israeli bombardments of