{"id":47116,"date":"2021-12-07T07:24:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T07:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47116"},"modified":"2021-12-07T07:24:32","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T07:24:32","slug":"palestinian-teenager-shot-dead-by-israeli-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47116","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian teenager shot dead by Israeli guard"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT: Lebanon\u2019s Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday held a number of meetings designed to help restore Arab trust in Lebanon, and the country\u2019s diplomatic and economic relationships with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.<\/p>\n

\nIt followed an agreement, announced in Jeddah on Saturday, by French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to work together to help the people of Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\nThe participants in extended meetings at the Grand Serail, the prime minister\u2019s headquarters, included Defense Minister Maurice Selim, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullah Bou Habib, Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan and Industry Minister George Boujikian.<\/p>\n

\nOther officials who took part included Acting Director-General of Lebanon Customs Raymond Al-Khoury, Mohammed Choucair, the head of the Lebanese Economic Organizations, and representatives of the Federation of Lebanese-Gulf Businessmen Councils.<\/p>\n

\nChoucair, who is also a former minister, stressed the need for the organizations to work on resuming exports to Saudi Arabia and said: \u201cWe discussed new ways of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nDuring the meeting, Mikati said that \u201cSaudi Arabia and the Gulf states are fed up of hearing slogans that are not implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nA number of people who were present told Arab News that Mikati stressed the \u201cneed to address the gaps,\u201d and that \u201csome issues the Gulf states are complaining about are right. We must recommend measures to address them, such as the establishment of additional towers on the borders with Syria in order to control the border.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nFAST<\/span>FACT<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n

\nPrime Minister Najib Mikati said that \u2018Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are fed up of hearing slogans that are not implemented.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nMawlawi said that discussions had focused on the issue of exports to Saudi Arabia and concerns about smuggling.<\/p>\n

\nHe said: \u201cWe will take practical measures for anything that might pose a threat to our relations with the Arab states, and I will follow up on all judicial proceedings related to smuggling and combating drugs and captagon.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe must all take prompt action to control the borders, airport, port and all crossing points, and we must (address) the smuggling happening through Lebanon. We do not disclose all smuggling operations we bust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nMawlawi added: \u201cWe intercepted a captagon-smuggling operation on Saturday. We are following up on it, and the people involved have been arrested.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe will give practical answers to the smuggling taking place, and what might pose a threat to our relations with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe also noted that \u201cin the case of seized narcotic substances, even if they are manufactured outside of Lebanon and brought to Lebanon to change the manufacturing company\u2019s name and repackage them, the company\u2019s license will be revoked, its work discontinued and its name announced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nRegarding a call for the restriction of weapons to Lebanese state institutions as a condition for the restoration of Saudi-Lebanese relations, Mawlawi said: \u201cWe are implementing the Lebanese state\u2019s policy and highlighting its interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNicolas Chammas, head of the Beirut Traders\u2019 Association, said that \u201cthe biggest problem remains contraband.\u201d He added: \u201cWe will work to make Lebanon, once again, a platform for the export of goods, not contraband. We are required to take swift, serious measures and we will take successive measures in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nFouad Siniora, a former president of Lebanon, described Saturday\u2019s Saudi-French statement as being \u201cof exceptional importance in these delicate circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIt \u201cresolves the controversy regarding many issues raised in the Arab region, especially with regard to Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: Lebanon\u2019s Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday held a number of meetings designed to help restore Arab trust in Lebanon, and the country\u2019s diplomatic and economic relationships with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. It followed an agreement, announced in Jeddah on Saturday, by French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Mohammed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}