Ambassador Jayatilleka meets Lebanese counterpart Chawki Bou Nassar

On 15 January 2019 Ambassador Jayatilleka paid a courtesy call to the Ambassador of Lebanon to the Russian Federation, Chawki Bou Nassar. 

The Heads of Mission shared their views on complicated core issues of the Middle East region. They had a long political discussion on the Palestinian Issue, the Arab Spring, Israel-Arab relations, and double standards on Human Rights. “Ignoring the reality doesn’t mean the issue doesn’t exist,” said the Lebanese Ambassador. He pointed out that Lebanon and Syria are linked historically and geographically, thus issues in Syria strongly affect Lebanon’s wellbeing. Lebanon has always enjoyed a wide margin of democracy, but is facing economic problems.  

Ambassador Chawki Bou Nassar spoke about the Arab Spring as originally a promising movement calling for human rights, freedom, democracy and a need for reform, but underlined that the intervention of external powers deviated and distorted the process and outcome.

The Lebanese Ambassador underscored that all events evolving in the Middle East were based on the Palestinian issue. The Palestinians were freedom fighters, defending their human rights. 

The Heads of Mission agreed that the whole Arab world is facing challenges and a political solution is needed to regain stability, security and normalise political life in the region.