https://arab.news/9fcqe

I never imagined that I would write this article. Nor did I expect to reach the moment when I would say: a final farewell, Lebanon. Not because I no longer love this country, but because I loved it more than it could withstand failure, more than denial would allow, and more than a state that refuses to confront the causes of its own collapse can accept.
Lebanon was never, to me, a conventional investment. It was a relationship, a commitment and a moral choice before it was ever an economic venture. I stayed when many others left. I opened my hotels and launched my investments during times of war and I kept them operating through the harshest conditions — not because the numbers made sense but because I believed that people must not be abandoned, that employees should not be sacrificed and that dignity does not shut its doors at the first sign of crisis. My investments in Lebanon were not limited to the hospitality sector, although it was the largest; they extended to other sectors and activities, driven by my belief in integrated investment as a means of supporting both the economy and society.
Over many years, I invested more than $1.7 billion of my own capital in Lebanon. I did not take a single loan from any Lebanese bank. I never relied on the banking system, never burdened the state with debt and never participated in financial engineering schemes. I chose to invest my own money because I wanted to build, not borrow, and because I believed in Lebanon more than Lebanon believed in itself.
It is therefore both ironic and regrettable that claims are now being circulated suggesting that I benefited from the financial collapse or the banking crisis, or that I repaid loans at the old........

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