BEIRUT, Jan 18 (KUNA) -- The visiting UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Saturday expressed his readiness to seek all forms of backing for Lebanon from the international community.
Guterres, emerging from a meeting with the recently elected President of the Republic Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda just southeast of Beirut, expressed optimism that the country, smarting from a recent devastating war with the Israeli occupation, would recover quickly
A new chapter for peace can be opened once the Israeli forces have withdrawn from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese Army has been deployed on all the Lebanese territories, the UN Secretary General said.
The UN chief had also met with the designated Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and expressed optimism about future of the country as he spoke after the session.
He re-affirmed full support for the president and the new premier and pledged to rally backing for the country at the international level
Speaking after an earlier meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Guterres said that the UN Interim Peacekeeping Forces in South Lebanon (UNIFIL) have been closely coordinating with the Lebanese Army in the south to ensure that the Israeli forces would pull out according to the set schedule as outlined in the truce accord.
Yesterday, he visited the UNIFIL headquarters in Naquora, a coastal town close to the last line with occupied Palestine, praising the troops for their courage and stand in the face of recent attacks. He disclosed that more than 100 arms depots have been recently discovered by the peacekeepers in the south.
The recent hostilities ended with a truce mediated by superpowers. The occupation Israeli troops have been carrying out phased withdrawal from some regions in the frontier villages they have recently seized, giving way for troops of the Lebanese Army to retake positions in the region. (end)
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