Jones Meets Berri, Stresses Need to Hold Municipal Elections on Time

U.S. Charge d’Affaires Ambassador Richard Jones stressed on Thursday that holding the municipal elections in Lebanon is a “great way to preserve Lebanese democracy.”

He said after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri: “We agreed on the importance of holding them on schedule.”

“I assured the Speaker that the U.S. would support his efforts and those of others to strengthen and preserve Lebanese democracy,” he added according to his press office.

Discussions also tackled an upcoming Lebanese parliamentary delegation's visit to the U.S.

“The United States warmly welcomes this parliamentary delegation,” said Jones.

“The visit represents an important opportunity to strengthen the ties between Lebanon and the American people and governments, and to improve the understanding of the American government of the issues and the challenges facing Lebanon,” he remarked.

“We believe this is a group of well-respected members of parliament that represents a real cross-section of the political currents in the parliament, from both the March 8 and March 14 camps.

“We look forward to fruitful high level discussions with them on political, security, and economic issues,” he continued.

They are scheduled to meet with officials from the State Department, the Treasury Department, the National Security Council, as well as several members of the U.S. Congress.

Jones noted: “We understand that the delegation will be interested in discussing the impact on Lebanon of the implementation of the Hizbullah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015 (HIFPA).”

“We welcome these discussions and look forward to continuing the strong cooperation between our two countries on counter terror finance.

“It has been a long time since there has been such a parliamentary delegation coming to the United States. We hope that is the first of many that will come,” said Jones.