Canadian Foreign Minister to Meet Senior Lebanese Officials

W460

Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion, who arrived in Beirut on Friday is scheduled to kick start his meetings with senior Lebanese officials, the National News Agency reported.

Dion who is accompanied by two Canadian MPs of Lebanese origin, Eva Nassif and Marwan Tabbara, arrived Friday night on a three-day visit.

The Canadian Minister is scheduled to meet with Lebanese President Michel Aoun to congratulate him on his election as a president.

Later he will meet with Speaker Nabih Berri, Caretaker PM Tammam Salam, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, to tackle the current situation in Lebanon and the region, as well as bilateral ties between Lebanon and Canada.

On the other hand, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier left Beirut Friday night heading to Germany on a private plane.

Also, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu flew from Beirut Friday night heading to Turkey on a private plane.

SourceNaharnet
Comments 3
Thumb chrisrushlau 03 December 2016, 14:14

FM Dion has suggested that Lebanon, intead of barring its Shia majority from participating in electoral politics via Lebanon's Constitutional requirement in Article 24 that Christians, who are about a quarter of the population, receive half the seats in Parliament, leaving Shias, who are more than half (according to Noam Chomsky and others, no census has been taken since the 1930's), effectively disenfranchised, should arrange for instruction for its Shias so they can learn to vote correctly and in accord with generally recognized standards of decency and rationality. He mentioned Canada's participation in the US invasion of Afghanistan but not its invasion of Iraq to illustrate his point. "We helped Afghans to save their democracy, but the US did not want to save democracy in Iraq so we were not able, under considerations of professional responsibility, to participate in that operation."

Default-user-icon Georges (Guest) 03 December 2016, 20:27

Lebanese Christians in the world are about 4 times the number of Lebanese Muslims. They forbig us from voting from abroad, so I ask, why do Muslims have 50% of Parliament?
Why are Lebanese living abroad not allowed to vote, like every-other-democratic-country in the World?!

Thumb Elemental 04 December 2016, 00:13

shiarushlau.