French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin visits Beirut

July 17, 2006

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is in Beirut today. He will be joined by Philippe Douste-Blazy, the Foreign Affairs Minister.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister ordered a second meeting about Lebanese crisis with Michèle Alliot-Marie, the French Defense Minister.

The French government also rented a 1000 seat ferry from Greece in order to begin to evacuate French and other foreign nationals from Lebanon to Cyprus. French military forces will ship medical supplies and aid to the island.

On July 13, the French Foreign Affairs department began asking French people to identify themselves to authorities and if possible to postpone any visit to Lebanon.

Finally, this meeting talked about ways to help the Lebanese people.

Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister, talked to the French Prime Minister on the phone on July 15 and expressed his feelings about the situation in his country.