Bassil Seeks Name Change to 'Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Ministry'
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Thursday announced that he has signed a draft law to change the name of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants to the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diaspora and International Cooperation.”
Speaking at a Lebanese expat conference in Beirut, Bassil added that he knows that his move will face “a campaign to distort” his true intention.
“I do not like emigration and its losses and I accept the diaspora and its benefits, but what only pleases me is return, which involves Lebanon's return to its identity,” Bassil went on to say.
He added: “I hope the day will come when we establish 'the Ministry of Returnees', which would be in charge of securing all the prerequisites of return and its necessary motives in terms of language, labor, residence, society and the state.”
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