Top Lebanese official in IMF talks calls for central bank head to resign amid corruption allegations

By ABBY SEWELL

BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese official heading talks with the International Monetary Fund to bail out Lebanon’s tanking economy has called for the country’s embattled central bank chief to resign. Lebanon’s caretaker deputy prime minister, Saade Chami, was speaking Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. His comments follow multiple allegations of corruption and an international arrest warrant issued against Lebanon’s central bank chief. Once seen as the guardian of Lebanon’s financial stability, Central Bank Gov. Riad Salameh is now widely blamed for an economic meltdown that began in 2019. The Lebanese pound has since plunged in value and partly wiped out the savings of ordinary Lebanese, plunging an estimated three-quarters of the population into poverty.