my guest today is the minister of economy and trade, raoul nehme.s resigned but he is still in office until new ministers take over. the outgoing prime minister says the catastrophic situation is the result of endemic corruption. so is lebanon a country now beyond rescue? minister raoul nehme in beirut, welcome to hard talk. thank you, thank you. your country is going through an unparalleled crisis. and i have to ask you, a very simple question, does lebanon have a government today oi’ lebanon have a government today or not? lebanon has a caretaker government, which means that the council of ministers cannot meet and take any decisions. there are very few exceptions, basically if there is an emergency, and if take, and they need to take some decisions that yes we can do it. each minister on his own can take only basic decisions, administrative decisions, and not spend money and not engage the government in the long—term and so on. it is really only a ca reta ker and so on. it is really only a caretaker government. if i may say so, minister, this is