BEASLEY VISITS HARIRI: We are Spending Almost One Million Dollars Per Day in Lebanon

22 Oct 2018

Lebanon - Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri received this afternoon at the Center House a delegation from the World Food Program (WFP), headed by its Executive Director David Beasley, accompanied by a delegation from the German parliament.

After the meeting, Beasley said:

"We are here for few days, meeting with the leadership of Lebanon. We just spoke with the Prime Minister and met earlier with the President of the Parliament. Last year I also met with the president of the republic.

We will ago across the country and see the program we are implementing alongside the government here. We are in the process of continuing to work with many people in Lebanon. You know the number of Syrian refugees that are here, we are engaged with about 750000 Syrian refugees and we are working on projects that are benefiting the poor, the needy school children in Lebanon, that are Lebanese.

We are spending a little bit less than a million dollars per day in Lebanon. The USA, European leaders like Germany, the UK have been tremendous partners working with us so we can address the food security issue and help alleviate the pressure and burden that have been placed upon the government and the people of Lebanon.

Lebanon has been absolutely amazing host to the people that had to flee for whatever reason out of Syria. We are here to say thank you, we are here to say what else can we do, how can we partner together more effectively, and the Prime Minister has just been a tremendous partner to work with as we discussed issues.

Alongside today, we brought some great friends from the Bundestag of Germany because Germany is the number one supporter of the World Food Program in Lebanon and Germany gives about a hundred and five million dollars for Lebanon, just in 2018 alone. They came here to see the impact that the program has.

To be clear, when we talk with Syrians, whether in Syria or Lebanon, they do not want to leave the region, this is their home area. The cost of feeding a Syrian in this area is about 15 cents per day. The same Syrians, if they were in Berlin or Brussels, the humanitarian cost would be about 15 euros per day.

So it’s a win -win to come to the root of peoples’ heritage and history. We know from our studies that Syrians do not want to leave the region, whether is Syria, or as guests here in Lebanon. Of course, we hope that the region will stabilize as soon as possible but until that day occurs, we will do everything we can to work with the government and leadership of Lebanon to take the burden and pressure off of this nation, which has been such a generous host.

What Lebanon has done is a model for the world and the world should not let them stand alone. The world needs to know that we have to help Lebanon, to encourage Lebanon and this is one of the reasons we are here."

Hariri later on received the caretaker Minister of Administrative Development Inaya Ezzeddine, in the presence of MP Bahia Hariri.