Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Friday that the group will not oppose aid to Lebanon from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if the help would include reasonable conditions that do not harm the interests of the country.
"If the conditions do not breach Lebanese sovereignty, or at least do not contradict Lebanese law... Any assistance within logical conditions is possible. There is no problem with this," Nasrallah said.
The leader noted that his movement refuses conditions that “would make the country explode” such as raising the value-added tax (VAT), especially for the poor, according to Reuters.
Nasrallah also warned against Lebanon falling "under anybody's trusteeship or hand over its financial and economic administration" to outside parties.
Hezbollah has repeatedly declared that it refuses to allow the IMF to manage Lebanon's crisis.
On Thursday, following a first round of talks between the IMF and the Lebanese government, the organization indicated that it is ready to provide technical advice to officials in Lebanon to improve the economic situation.
Last week, the Lebanese government announced that it would not be able to make debt payments amid the country’s prolonged financial and economic crisis.
Decades of economic hardship prompted street protests in Lebanon in October 2019 that ousted Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The new government this month adopted a plan to stop the economy from collapsing under heavy debt, estimated at 150 percent of the gross domestic product.
