Aoun Travels to Italy for Meetings

President Michel Aoun left Beirut on Tuesday for a three-day official visit to Rome at the invitation of his Italian counterpart Sergio Matarella, who will hold talks at the Italian presidential palace on the Lebanese-Italian relations and means of developing them in all fields, the National News Agency reported.

NNA added that the discussions will also highlight the latest developments in Lebanon and the region.

Aoun is scheduled to meet Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and a number of Italian officials, it added.

President Aoun is accompanied by an official delegation including First Lady Nadia al-Shami Aoun, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil and Lebanese Ambassador to Italy Mira Daher.

Aoun is scheduled to inaugurate Thursday the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue Conference in the Italian capital and deliver a speech on behalf of Lebanon, in the presence of the Italian president and a number of officials from European and Mediterranean countries, said NNA.

The conference will be held for the third time in Rome and will address issues of interest to countries on both sides of the Mediterranean basin. The most important of these is how to maintain the political stability of these countries in order to provide opportunities for exchange, dialogue and common security through building strategies to combat terrorism and illegal migration.

The meeting will be attended by Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abu el-Gheit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, and representatives of several Gulf Arab states and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, as well as Italian officials and Lebanese and Arab figures.

The program of President Aoun's visit includes a meeting with the Lebanese community in Italy.