Top Officials to Discuss Refugees Report ahead of New York Support Group Meet
President Michel Suleiman is scheduled to head a meeting of the Lebanese delegation that will travel to New York to agree on an official report on Lebanon's needs to confront the huge Syria refugee influx.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted informed sources as saying Tuesday that the Baabda palace meeting is aimed at putting the final touches on the report drafted by the Social Affairs Ministry in coordination with the president's advisers.
Wednesday's meeting will be attended in addition to the delegation, by Caretaker Premier Najib Miqati.
The report will be the basis for a Sept. 25 meeting of an international support group for Lebanon at the General Assembly.
Earlier this month, the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, told The Associated Press that the bank was helping Lebanon prepare the ground to request an influx of international aid to offset the high costs of the spillover from the Syrian civil war.
Kim said in an interview that the Lebanese government asked the World Bank to take the lead in preparing a quick assessment of the social and economic impacts of the war in neighboring Syria.
Kim said the bank made a "very intensive effort" to finish the assessment in a few weeks, something that normally would take six to nine months.
Lebanese officials are hoping the World Bank's stamp on the analysis will underpin its request for aid from individual donor countries as well as international agencies.
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