NEW YORK CITY: Haneen Sayed, Lebanon’s minister of social affairs, used her visit to New York and Washington this week to emphasize the urgent need to strengthen state institutions as the country confronts the combined pressures of war, mass displacement, and economic strain.
She said that reinforcing the Lebanese state, from the army to social services, is essential not only to respond to the immediate humanitarian crisis, but also to restore public trust and prevent further institutional erosion at a critical moment.
Sayed also pointed to the importance of this week’s direct talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington aimed at securing a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, saying that halting the violence is a necessary first step to make negotiations viable.
Speaking to Arab News at the UN headquarters in New York before taking part in the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, Sayed outlined the scale of the crisis facing Lebanon.
“When Hezbollah decided to launch six missiles over the border (into Israel) on March 2, which then brought us into this war in a big way, our economy had not yet recovered,” she said.
