Beirut : Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed joining the Green Middle East initiative launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, considering it an “essential step” for his country.
The Lebanese Prime Ministry said in a statement, following Mikati’s meeting with Environment Minister Nasser Yassin and Agriculture Minister Abbas al-Hajj, that joining the initiative is an “essential step” for Lebanon, given that southern villages and towns are suffering significant environmental and agricultural damage, which “requires cooperation with all of Lebanon’s friends.”
For his part, Yassin stated after the meeting that the Saudi initiative aims to protect the Arab Gulf states and all the Middle East from the climate changes taking place, stop land degradation and desertification, and explore how to adapt more and more to what could happen in the future.
He stressed that this initiative “came at the right time” and will be followed up by the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment and all concerned parties in Lebanon, especially through joint reserves to increase the vegetation cover, pointing to Lebanon’s launch last year of the (Million Trees) initiative, considering that the new cooperation with Saudi Arabia through the (Green Middle East) initiative is “to develop planting operations.”
He considered that this initiative targets the Middle East region and seeks to find solutions to global warming, which he described as a “global concern,” noting the establishment of a higher committee to facilitate the procedures that would make this project and this partnership sustainable to the utmost extent.
The Lebanese Minister of Environment expressed his thanks to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for agreeing to study Lebanon’s file and joining this “very important” initiative, noting that this is part of the “permanent and ongoing cooperation for decades” with Saudi Arabia.
