Lebanese Prime Minister chairs UN meeting in New York on protracted crises and meets with European official
Beirut, 23 Sep (KUNA) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, alongside European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Achim Steiner, chaired a high-level meeting titled "Beyond Crises," held in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
The Lebanese Prime Minister's Office stated in a statement on Wednesday that the meeting, organized by Lebanon, the European Union, and UNDP with the participation of international officials, representatives of countries, and financial institutions, witnessed the launch of the aforementioned global program and the development of a more effective international approach to addressing protracted crises, drawing on Lebanon's experience in confronting the war in the south.
The statement added that Prime Minister Salam, in his opening address, emphasized that the transition to a post-crisis phase is a reality Lebanon is currently living through. He stressed the importance of not separating relief, return, recovery, and reconstruction, but rather pursuing them in parallel and in an integrated manner, while continuing to support the resilience of residents and rehabilitating essential services and infrastructure alongside providing assistance to displaced persons.
The statement clarified that Salam called for adopting an approach that strengthens the role, institutions, and capacities of the state in leading response and recovery efforts, rather than establishing parallel systems. He also called for providing more flexible financing tools to enable a seamless transition from emergency response to recovery, thereby consolidating the return of displaced persons and restoring livelihoods in affected areas.
In a related development, Prime Minister Salam held a bilateral meeting with European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica at the Lebanese Mission, in the presence of Foreign Minister Youssef Raji, to discuss bilateral relations, current developments, and the path toward return and recovery in southern Lebanon.
The statement noted that Šuica affirmed the European Union's solidarity with Lebanon and the commencement of disbursement of the second tranche of 500 million euros from the European aid package allocated to Lebanon. She underscored the importance of continuing the required government reforms to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and expressed the EU's readiness to continue supporting the recovery process.
Lebanese diplomacy in New York continues to mobilize support to strengthen the presence of legitimate institutions and the Lebanese Armed Forces, and to secure the requirements for recovery in the south, while calling on the international community to exert pressure to halt the ongoing violations and aggressions by the Israeli occupation forces. (End) F.Z./R.J.
