Arrived in Lebanon this Sunday at the end of the afternoon, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres began a 2-day visit to Lebanon to meet the various Lebanese personalities and members of civil society. As soon as he arrived, he called for the regulation of the current political crisis in order to resolve in turn the economic crisis that the Land of the Cedars is currently going through.
From the steps of Beirut airport where he was greeted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Bou Habib, he indicated that he had already traveled to Lebanon as High Commissioner in charge of refugees and then went to the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun.
From the Presidential Palace, Antonio Guterres estimated that the international community had not done enough to support Lebanon, struggling with a disastrous economic crisis and sheltering more than a million Syrian refugees, urging the international community to more efforts vis-à-vis Lebanon.
Thus, of the $ 383 million needed to finance the UN program, only 11% would have been granted by donor countries, says the UN Secretary General.
For his part, the Head of State stressed the importance of overcoming the successive crises in Lebanon by drawing up an economic recovery plan to present it to the International Monetary Fund and negotiate them at the same time with numerous economic, financial and reform reforms. administrative. For this, it is also a question of controlling public spending, fighting against the corruption that plagues public administrations and carrying out the forensic audit of the accounts of the Banque du Liban.
Also, the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, reiterated his call for the organization of legislative elections on time.
Addressing the UN Secretary General, General Aoun urged him to find a solution concerning the presence of a large community of Syrian refugees present in Lebanon before also reiterating the commitment of the Land of the Cedars to respect the various UN resolutions including UN resolution 1701 and its sovereignty as the exploitation of its natural resources including those that would be present in its exclusive maritime zone.
This morning, Antonio Guterres should go to the port of Beirut for a tribute to the victims of the explosion of August 4, 2020 to then go to North Lebanon to Tripoli then continue his Lebanese tour in South Lebanon to inspect the posts of the UNIFIL before concluding it on Wednesday with a press conference.
