Turns Out Washington did ask Governor Salameh To Punish The LCB

The question is: Is this a beginning or an end?

Salameh admitted the decision to merge LCB had come at the request of the U.S. Treasury as a way to remove the scandal-hit administration and resume confidence in the bank.

So the LCB was “merged” with the SGBL to save face, but make no mistake about what just happened: This was a swift, spectacular collapse of a Lebanese financial institution because it had dealings with Hezbollah. The other banks (and hopefully the politicians) should have gotten the message.