REPORT: President Sleiman meets UN’s Brahimi, tackles Syrian crisis

         
President Michel Sleiman held a meeting on Monday at the New York Palace Hotel with the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi with talks featuring high on the preparations for the conference to be held in New York and the Syrian refugees’ dossier.           

In this regard, Sleiman briefed Brahimi on the "dire" political and security situations that result from the rising influx of Syrian refugees.

President Sleiman presided on Sunday a meeting of the Lebanese delegation hours after arriving in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly sessions and a conference of an international support group for Lebanon.

The state-run National News Agency said that the meeting tackled the last minute preparations for President Sleiman's participation at the General Assembly and the speech he is set to deliver.

Talks also featured high over the 25th of September meeting to assist Lebanon in addressing the Syrian refugee influx which will be headed by President Sleiman and UN chief Bank Ki-moon.

The meeting will be also attended by the foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members, the head of the World Bank, in addition to officials from different U.N. agencies such as the UNDP and UNHCR.

The UN Higher Council for Refugees (UNHCR) said in August that the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon receiving aid from the government, the UN and its NGO partners has reached the threshold of 703,000.

The number of registered refugees is more than 592,000, while more than 110,000 are still waiting for their registration process to be completed, it said.

It added that 198,000 Syrian refugees were registered in northern Lebanon, representing 33 percent of the total number of refugees; 201,000 in the eastern Bekaa region, representing 34 percent; 115,000 in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, representing 18 percent; and 77,000 in southern Lebanon, representing 13 percent.


For the full report, please click on the VIDEO above