Ambassador Nawaf Salam, Lebanon’s permanent representative to the U.N.told An Nahar newspaper in a report published on Saturday that the Sept. 25 meeting for Lebanon international support at the United Nations General Assembly, will be headed by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and President Michel Suleiman and will take place amidst a background of a strong international 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, according to Salam.
“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 in which it revealed that 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.
It is not clear however how can Lebanon be disassociated from the events in Syria, as long as the Shiite Hezbollah militant group , which is an integral part of the Lebanese government continues to openly help the Syrian regime in its fight against the mostly Sunni Syrian rebels who are seeking to end the rule of Syrian president Bashar al Assad.
Thousands of Hezbollah fighters joined the forces loyal to Assad in an effort to crush the Syrian revolution and the Iranian backed militant group has been bringing back its fighters in caskets to bury them in Lebanon
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