Hezbollah against allowing IMF to 'manage' Lebanese crisis

BEIRUT - The powerful Shiite group Hezbollah is against allowing the International Monetary Fund to manage Lebanon's financial crisis but does not oppose Lebanon seeking the IMF's advice, the group's deputy leader said on Tuesday.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and designated as a terrorist group by the United States, is one of the main parties that backs the new Beirut government, which has requested technical but not financial assistance from the IMF.

Facing a huge public debt burden and an acute liquidity crisis, the Lebanese state on Tuesday appointed international investment and law firms as its financial and legal advisers on a widely expected restructuring of its sovereign debt.

One of the world's most heavily indebted states, Lebanon must urgently decide how to handle forthcoming maturities of sovereign debt including a $1.2 billion Eurobond due on March 9.

Some of Lebanon's Eurobonds intensified their sell-off in afternoon trading in London. The June 2025 issue shed 1.3 cents to reach 27 cents in the dollar and the October 2022 issue lost 1.4 cents to hit 28 cents in the dollar, Tradeweb data showed.

"We will not accept submitting to (imperialist) tools ... meaning we do not accept submitting to the International Monetary Fund to manage the crisis," Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said. "Yes, there is nothing to prevent consultations (with the IMF), and this is what the Lebanese government is doing," he said.

A team of IMF experts arrived in Beirut last week at the government's request to offer technical support.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally and one of Lebanon's most influential figures, last week echoed Qassem's view, saying Lebanon could not surrender itself to the IMF because the nation could not bear the Fund's conditions.

The government gave approval for US asset management company Lazard to act as Lebanon's financial adviser and law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP to act as its legal adviser on the debt restructuring, which ratings agencies and investors expect to happen.

Lazard has previously advised on some of the world's largest sovereign debt restructurings including Argentina, Greece and Ukraine. Lazard Freres, a French subsidiary of Lazard, was one of the firms that advised Argentina in overhauling its debt after it defaulted on some $100 billion loans during its crisis in 2002.