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2018 LEBANON POSITION PAPER

West Valley High School

Heather Damario, heather.damario@k12northstar.org 

 

Global Cooperation Under Siege

The Republic of Lebanon is excited to be apart of this conference that is addressing global cooperation under siege. Lebanon recognizes the importance of working together to ensure the safety, security, and well-being of the global community. Lebanon has been committed to meeting this goal by its participation in the United Nations on various committees and allowing millions of Syrian refugees into our country. We are committed to making the world a more peaceful place and are looking forward to the opportunity to hear opinions from the international community on how to solve the problems facing our world.

 

Lebanon Perspective

The great country of Lebanon has an area ⅓ the size of Maryland and is comprised 6.2 million Lebanese residents coupled with an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees. With our close proximity to Syria, Iraq, Iran and Israel, brings about large amounts of tension over borders and terrorism. Lebanon has been subject to countless terrorists attacks conducted by Al Qaeda and ISIS. Additionally, with the rise of the new terrorist group, Hezbollah, in our country and political system, the issue of terrorism has become an even more pressing issue than before. We are committed to finding a solution to ending terrorism in our country.

 

Additionally, a major problem facing our country for many years has been the conflict over settling on a border solution with Israel and Palestine, which Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Saad Hariri says in the biggest threat to Lebanon’s stability. Israel has proven unwilling to talk and negotiate and therefore does not want peace. Recent events have exemplified Israel’s greediness with not allowing us to explore oil resources which are within our set borders at the time. We are willing to find a compromise to this longstanding border problem with Israel, as long as they are willing to compromise and make peace-minded decisions.

 

With our lack of infrastructure and increase of refugees into our country has proven to be difficult to handle, especially when it comes down to means of collecting trash and keeping our environment safe and healthy for humans and habitat. Out coasts have turned from beaches into trash dumps and this is posing many threats to our environment. Lebanon is ready to tackle this issue with the help of the international community.

 

Looking to the Future

Our country’s size and lack of infrastructure is making it difficult to sustain the Syrian refugees that currently make up a quarter of our population. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri does not wish to force refugees out of our borders but is calling for $2.68 billion in humanitarian aid specifically in the capital Beirut. It is crucial that if we want to supply a habitable place to live for the refugees that we get “more help from the international community” as said by our Prime Minister Hariri.

 

Again our lack of infrastructure has proven to be a catalyst of many problems. Because of this, our government has had to suspend trash collection in the summer of 2015. By 2016, 2 million metric tons of waste was recorded along the shore. We are calling on aid from the international community to help clean up our shores and put in more effective infrastructure. We thank the United States for giving us $120 million in aid to our country and look forward to more help like this from the international community.

 

We believe that one of the best ways to end terrorism is to create a definite border solution with Israel and surrounding countries so that we can begin to effectively secure our own borders. However, Israel has proven on many occasions that they “do not want peace.”Israel must embrace the theme of this conference “global cooperation under siege” so that this long lasting border conflict can be solved and stability can start to become a reality.

 

Conclusion

Lebanon recognizes the that these issues will not be easy to solve but reaffirms the importance of finding a feasible solution. With our location in an area of high intensity conflict these issues are pressing and if any stability in this geographic area is to be achieved we must make these issues a priority to solve.

 

References

 

“Border Management - United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee.”United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/sc/ctc/focus-areas/border-control/.

 

“Lebanon's Prime Minister On Help For Syrian Refugees.” NPR, NPR, 27 July 2017, www.npr.org/2017/07/27/539682623/lebanons-prime-minister-on-help-for-syrian-refugees.(www.dw.com), Deutsche Welle. “Lebanon Garbage Crisis Pollutes Mediterranean | Environment|

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.