Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with senior Lebanese officials on Thursday to convey Tehran’s inclination for supporting the financially bankrupt country.
The Iranian Foreign Minister held separate meetings with Lebanese President Michel Aoun as well as the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, before also meeting with the newly-appointed Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
Amir-Abdollahian’s visit will also include a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart, Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.
At a press conference after the talks with the parliament speaker, Amir-Abdollahian stated: “There was a mutual agreement about the need to strengthen bilateral ties in various ways.”
With regards to questions on talks with Saudi Arabia, the Iranian Foreign Minister stated that talks have gone a “good distance.”
The visit comes nearly one month after Mikati returned for a third stint as prime minister at the head of Lebanon’s first full-fledged government in more than a year.
The former government under Hassan Diab resigned following an explosion in the Port of Beirut, which alleviated the already-present financial crisis in the country. Lebanon’s foreign reserves have since continued to dwindle and the local currency has plummeted, leading the majority of the population into poverty.
