Kuwaiti Speaker Meets Berri, Stresses Gulf State's Continued Support for Lebanon
Visiting Kuwaiti Speaker Marzouq al-Ghanim said on Tuesday that the Gulf State never wavered in backing Lebanon.
He stressed: “Kuwait will never abandon Lebanon under any circumstances.”
He made his remarks during a luncheon banquet thrown in his honor by Speaker Nabih Berri.
“Kuwait has never abandoned Lebanon and Lebanon has never abandoned Kuwait,” added Ghanim.
Addressing the case of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, he commented: “We have witnessed firsthand the suffering of the displaced, who are posing a major economic burden on Lebanon.”
“Lebanon is being made to support a burden it cannot withstand,” noted the Kuwaiti official.
For his part, Berri thanked Ghanim for his country's support to Lebanon and its sponsoring of a donor conference for the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, while highlighting the role of the Kuwait Fund and Gulf Cooperation Council in this issue.
Ghanim had arrived in Lebanon on a two-day official visit on Sunday.
He paid a visit on Monday to various refugee encampments in the eastern Bekaa region.
More than 1 million of Syrians are in Lebanon, leaving the country, home to 4.5 million people, struggling to cope with the massive influx of refugees.
The Syrian conflict started in March 2011 as largely peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad's rule that deteriorated into civil war.
The fighting has uprooted 9 million people from their homes, with over 6 million Syrians seeking shelter in safer parts of the country and at least 2.7 million fleeing to neighboring countries.
M.T.
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