In Munich, Salam calls for increased support for the army

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam held a series of diplomatic meetings on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference after arriving in Germany on Friday, calling for increased support for the Lebanese Armed Forces ahead of an international assistance conference scheduled for next month.

Salam, a former president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, met in particular with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker. During the talks, he discussed the continuation of European support for the army and ways to strengthen Lebanon’s relations with the two countries across various fields.

“European countries should play a greater role in supporting stability processes in the region,” he said.

The Dutch prime minister also confirmed the Netherlands’ participation in the support conference set to take place in March in Paris.

Salam also met with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, reaffirming Lebanon’s commitment to continued cooperation with United Nations human rights mechanisms. During the meeting, he referred to “ongoing Israeli violations of human rights in Lebanon” and called for intensified efforts to secure the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails, whom Lebanese authorities say number at least 20.

The prime minister has repeatedly pledged to use all “diplomatic, international and U.N. channels” to resolve the issue, most recently during a late-January meeting with a delegation of detainees’ family members.