Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Tuesday called on donor countries to “reconsider the issue of halting funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), because funding constitutes an urgent and necessary need for a cause not chosen by the Palestinians, but rather imposed upon them.”
Premier Mikati also called on donor countries to “consider the exceptional situation of UNRWA in Lebanon, because there is a Lebanese specificity that must be taken into account.”
Mikati also stressed that he will communicate with donor countries in the conferences and meetings he holds “to urge them to reconsider this issue in view of its direct repercussions on the overall Lebanese reality.”
Premier Mikati received today at the Grand Serail, the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, Dr. Dorothy Klaus, in the presence of the Chairman of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, Dr. Dr. Bassel Al-Hassan.
On the other hand, Mikati received at the Grand Serail, the Parliamentar
y State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Niels Annen, in the presence of the accompanying delegation, and the German Ambassador to Lebanon, Kurt Georg Stoeckl-Stillfried.
The meeting also took place in the presence of Mikati’s Advisors, Ambassador Boutros Asaker and Ziad Mikati.
Discussions during the meeting reportedly touched on the bilateral relations, financial and economic cooperation, in addition to the security situation in the south and the implementation of Resolution 1701.
The German official informed the Prime Minister that his country ‘decided to continue supporting UNRWA in Lebanon in addition to supporting development projects in the country.’
He also stressed “supporting Lebanon in implementing Resolution 1701.”
Mikati later received the Ambassador of Estonia, Ingrid Amer, with whom he discussed the current situation in Lebanon and the region.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon