Nawaf Salam: 5 Permanent Members Agree to Distance Lebanon from Regional Crises
A Sept. 25 meeting of an international support group for Lebanon at the United Nations General Assembly will be based on a presidential statement issued by the Security Council this month, Lebanon's permanent representative to the U.N. said.
Ambassador Nawaf Salam told An Nahar daily published on Saturday that the meeting, which will be headed by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and President Michel Suleiman, will take as its starting point an international call for a strong support to Lebanon to confront the challenges that are threatening its security and stability.
The foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members, the head of the World Bank, in addition to officials from different U.N. agencies such as the UNDP and UNHCR will attend the high-profile conference.
“The five countries totally agree on distancing Lebanon from the crises of the region,” said Salam. “The Lebanese government is also fully committed to the dissociation policy which has no other alternative to protect Lebanon and preserve its stability ad unity.”
The World Bank has prepared an assessment report for the New York meeting.
Spillover from the Syrian war has cost Lebanon billions of dollars, deeply damaged its economy and harshly strained social services such as health, education and electricity, the World Bank has reportedly said in the report.
The report, which hasn't been released yet, estimates that the total costs of spillover will shave close to 3 percentage points off gross domestic product growth per year between 2012 and 2014. Unemployment will double to more than 20 percent and about 170,000 additional Lebanese will be plunged into poverty on top of some 1 million currently living below the poverty line.
For the three years 2012-2014, the report estimates $1.5 billion in government revenues will be lost while simultaneously, government spending will have to increase by $1.1 billion because of the surge in demand for public services. That will bring the total negative impact on the Lebanese budget to $2.6 billion.
"Across all key public services, the surge in demand is currently being partly met through a decline in both the access to and the quality of public service delivery," the report said.
It estimates that Lebanon will have to spend another $2.5 billion to bring access and quality of public services back to their pre-Syrian conflict level.
A day before the conference, Suleiman will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss the influx of Syrian refugees to Lebanon, Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said Friday.
over 11 years
ROFL... sure southern sure... always funny posts...
over 11 years
Ha has and continue being an extremist terrorist Iranian militia. and that is a fact.
its turn is coming soon.
over 11 years
i haven't you seen condemn the latest massacre in hama of women and children by assad supported by your socalled "resistance ... ! LOL
poor southern... you must be very tired and scared to see zionists and evil islamists everywhere but blind to see that assad does the same!!
over 11 years
If we follow your logic, H.A. is the front runner of Zionism or supporter of Zionism when they intentionally provoked the Israelis to attack Lebanon and caused billions in damages. Weaker and/or damaged Lebanon is an agenda of Zionism. I would also argue that a divided Lebanon is a Zionist goal. As long as Lebanon is divided, Lebanon is weak and does not have the time, money, resources or the will to effectively deal with threats like Zionism, Saudism or Iranianism because Lebanon is too busy fighting amongst each other. Just imagine, you are a married man, an outsider has purchased your wife, and your wife is servicing the needs of her benefactor. How could this family stand on its own feet and protect the home front?
over 11 years
Southern: Something else that needs your clarification, is the war and killings between the Sunni and the Shiite in Iraq, Syria and to a certain extent in Lebanon have anything to do with Zionism? Unless it is a some devious Zionist Plan to entice the Muslims to fight and kill each other and reduce the number of Muslims in the region so the Zionist have more room to stretch their legs in M.E.
over 11 years
So you're another who believes that everyone who does not agree with you 100% must therefore be a Zionist. What narrow minded thinking.
Have you every really looked into the daily life of the ordinary Israeli, plenty of food in the supermarkets, lots of new cars, high employment, democratic government, freedom of religion and oops I forgot electricity 24 hours a day (something that you don't have in Lebanon). When you have seen the way the Israeli in the street lives,you will understand that he trusts in the army that you make a mockery of, to take care if and when a Hizballah attack takes place.
over 11 years
""Unemployment will double to more than 20 percent " ""That will bring the total negative impact on the Lebanese budget to $2.6 billion."
and our incompetent politicians block the gvt formation, showing how much they do not care about lebanese and how much they despise the people...only interested in their low interests and mafias... and during this time people are getting poorer and poorer...
but i guess people deserve it as everyone seems to agree with this by reelecting and idolizing them!!
How on earth can Lebanon be distanced from the regional crisis whilst Hizballah is crossing the border with Syria all the time bringing back weapons and other military goods which one of these days they will try to use against either the legal government of the Republic of Lebanon or against the State of Israel.
Until the border is hermetically sealed to prevent this passage of goods and fighters then Lebanon unfortunately will remain part of the crisis.