Yarzeh, Lebanon

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

I had a very good
meeting with His Excellency the minister, the Deputy Prime minister. We
discussed the efforts that we have been making in the Office of the Special Coordinator
to encourage international support and assistance for the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Of course, over the past year there has been real
success in that area with a number of governments increasing their assistance
or providing new assistance or agreeing to provide assistance. We also had a
very successful conference in Rome only a month ago and follow up to the Rome
conference and how to build on the decisions there was a crucial part of our
discussion.

I understand that his Excellency the Minister, the
Deputy Prime Minister will be in the south tomorrow with the Italian Defense Minister
and I’m sure that issues with regard to follow up will be discussed then, as
well as bidding farewell to the UNIFIL force commander.

We also discussed the situation in the south, and as I
said after seeing the Speaker of Parliament a couple days ago, it is very
important I think to all of us, and I know that the government here strongly
agree, that calm be sustained in the south despite the awful events that are going
on elsewhere in the region.

Thank you very much.

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