Lebanese Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti quits 'sinking ship'

Nassif Hitti quit his post on Monday amid a severe economic crisis in Lebanon. The foreign minister submitted his resignation to the prime minister and left the government buildings without comment.

Hitti later said in a strongly-worded statement that he had resigned "due to the absence of a vision for Lebanon ... and the absence of an effective will to achieve comprehensive structural reform.''

He warned that Lebanon was turning into a "failed state'' and urged politicians to rally around the country's national interest.

"Otherwise the ship will sink with everyone on board."

Prime Minister Hassan Diab and President Michel Aoun announced later on Monday that Hitti would be replaced by Charbel Wehbe, a diplomatic advisor to Aoun.

Read more: Lebanese FM Hitti: 'We have to save our country'

Financial reforms

Hitti had been foreign minister since January and was reportedly unhappy with the government's performance and lack of movement on promised reforms, something he had said was the only way to "create a rupture with the past."

Earlier this year, protesters had demanded political and economic reform in the country beset by endemic corruption and sectarian power. Hitti had recognized the scale of the challenge.

"We are telling the international community, 'look at us and let's see if we succeed.' We are planning to succeed," Hitti told DW's Conflict Zone last month. "We are committed to success because we have to save our country."

Read more: Lebanon: From the penthouse to the outhouse

Shattered economy

The Middle East country has been experiencing mass layoffs, hospitals threatened with closure, shuttered shops and restaurants, and crimes driven by desperation — fueled by hyperinflation and rising poverty.

Lebanon in March defaulted on its debt for the first time.

The PM said during a televised address that the country would not pay a $1.2 billion (€1.35 billion) Eurobond due to the economic crisis facing the Middle East country, which has led its foreign currency reserves to hit critical levels.

A total meltdown in Lebanon could provoke new refugee flows to Europe and add yet more turmoil to the arc of instability stretching from Syria through Iraq, with negative implications for US allies in the region, said Mona Yacoubian, senior adviser to the vice president for the Middle East and Africa at the US Institute of Peace, writing in US newspaper, The Hill.

Read more: Lebanon to default on debt amid financial unrest

Beirut has begun formal negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to agree a financial rescue package worth around $10 billion.

DW's Tim Sebastian last month asked Foreign Minister Hitti why the international community should hand Beirut huge sums of money only for it to repeat the mistakes of the past.

"First and foremost, because we're not going to do what happened before," Hitti said.

"From day one, when we started working in this government, our plan is clear: It is to fight corruption, to go for structural reform, underlying structural reform. It's not minor reforms. It's basic reforms."

kw/rc (AP, dpa, Reuters)