Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Nagib Mikati (L) with his Iraqi counterpart Mustafa al-Kadhimi, in New York, on Sept. 21, 2022. (Photo credit: sent by our correspondent Hoda Chedid)
Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati met Wednesday with Iranian President Ebrahim Raissi and his Iraqi counterpart Mustafa al-Kadhimi in New York, on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
No statement was reported after the meeting between Mikati and Raisi.
The prime minister-designate also met Wednesday with the World Bank's vice president for the Middle East and North Africa region, Farid Belhadj, as well as Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, with whom he discussed the recent letter sent to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
In the letter, Najib Mikati called for a "new approach" by the international community on the return of Syrian refugees to their country, pointing out that Lebanon hosts the highest percentage of refugees per capita in the world while suffering from one of the most severe economic and financial crises since the mid-19th century.
Earlier Wednesday, the prime minister-designate met his Iraqi counterpart Mustafa al-Kadhimi. "Iraq stands by Lebanon in the turmoil it is going through and performs all necessary contacts at the regional and international levels with the aim of resolving the crisis in all its aspects," said the Iraqi official, quoted by the Grand Serail. Lebanon's outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, was also present at the meeting.
Kadhimi thanked his Lebanese counterpart for the recent decision to exempt Iraqi nationals from the requirement to obtain a visa prior to entering Lebanon. For his part, Mikati thanked Kadhimi for "his personal commitment to Lebanon and Iraq's eternal readiness to support it."
The two men did not say if they discussed the delivery of Iraqi fuel to Lebanon, though the terms such an agreement were reached in July 2021. While the agreement with Baghdad was renewed this summer, the last delivery to Electricité du Liban (EDL), originally scheduled for August, is still pending.
On Tuesday, the Lebanese Prime Minister-designate met in turn with French President Emmanuel Macron and with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the presidential election in Lebanon and negotiations on the maritime border with Israel.