UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag

Remarks to the press after meeting Prime Minister Saad Hariri

Beirut, Lebanon

Thursday, 22 December 2016

Good Morning,

The UN Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon Phillipe Lazzarini and myself are very pleased to meet with Prime Minister Hariri and his team. It is the first time that we meet him of course in the Serail. We had the opportunity to congratulate him and to discuss briefly the different steps of the strong cooperation that the United Nations family enjoys with Lebanon, but also really ideas on how we can further strengthen this. Of course, we have been in Lebanon for more than 71 years, our presence is strong, there is a commitment to Lebanon’s people and we need to work even more closely with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the new government to advance Lebanon’s stability, security and really also chart out that vision for prosperity for all those who reside on Lebanon’s soil.

We explored ideas around a possible meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon. The United Nations looks forward also to the timely conduct of the parliamentary elections next year for which also we continue to provide support and assistance. There are a number of meetings that we look forward to planning together with the Prime Minister and you will hear more of this in January.

But as we said before with the election of President Michel Aoun as well as the formation of the government, now there’s a new chapter hopefully in the history of Lebanon that we can all look forward to with confidence to the future of Lebanon and really seize all the opportunities that the country has and the government should really grasp for the benefit of the people, stability and security.

Thank you very much.