(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) US Secretary of State John Kerry will take part in the International Support Group for Lebanon meeting, due to be held in Paris on March 5. A US diplomat said that Kerry will return to Paris next week for talks on helping Lebanon cope with the overspill from the conflict in neighboring Syria.
In a letter to his newly named Lebanese counterpart, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced Thursday that the next meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon meeting would take place on March 5. "It is more necessary than ever to protect Lebanon from the repercussions of the Syrian crisis, on the security, political and economic fronts," Fabius said in the letter to Gebran Bassi
The group was set up last year to help Lebanon deal with the implications of the brutal war in Syria that began in March 201
It is intended to provide financial, political and security support to the small natio
It was hoped that the group would "be an active vehicle by which the international community can provide the support to promote stability" in Lebanon, Lawrence Silverman, acting deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs, told lawmakers at a hearing on Tuesda
"Secretary Kerry will attend the next gathering of this group.
In Paris next week," he added. Kerry only returned from his last overseas trip on Friday, during which he spent three nights in the French capita
Lebanon, which borders Syria, now hosts some 930,000 refugees who have fled the three-year conflict as rebels battle to oust hardline Syrian President Bashar al-Assa
"There is not a single Lebanese community that has not been affected by the refugee crisis," Silverman stresse
"The United States is doing its part to help Lebanon deal with the burden, providing over $340 million in assistanc
We urge other countries to meet the pledges that they have made," he said
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