Good Morning, I just wanted to say that we had an extremely good meeting with H.E. the new minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
We congratulated him on his appointment and we thanked him for all the work that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does and I know it will do to facilitate the operations of the United Nations in Lebanon, which obviously include the peacekeeping operation, UNIFIL in the south, it includes the humanitarian agencies and programmes, all the various institutions of the United Nations, which are represented here in Lebanon or have their regional headquarters in Lebanon like ESCWA. All of us were represented in this meeting. It was a really good discussion. We look forward to building on the relationship in order to facilitate the support and assistance that can be given both to Lebanon and to refugees in Lebanon. We discussed the upcoming meeting in Paris and what that can do to help to encourage, stimulate, highlight the need for yet more support not just for refugees here or immediate programmes but longer term assistance for Lebanon and for host communities who are receiving refugees in Lebanon. It was a very useful discussion and I know the dialogue will continue.
QUESTION: There was an Israeli raid on Hizbullah yesterday. Were you able to verify whether it was on Lebanese territories or whether it violated UN resolutions?
SCL DEREK PLUMBLY: I don’t have any direct information about that. But I would say that it is very important for the United Nations, seeing the press reports, to encourage all concerned to avoid anything which could lead to an escalation or disturb the calm which currently prevails as a result of resolution 1701. That’s all I can say on that subject.
QUESTION: Did you discuss the ministerial declaration?
SCL DEREK PLUMBLY: No, we did not discuss the ministerial declaration, except obviously to say that we look forward to a successful outcome to these discussions in which I know the minister is a very active participant. All of us want to see the government able to proceed and to address the challenges, the humanitarian, the development, the security challenges, the very serious security challenges that Lebanon faces.
Thank you very much.