President of the National Dialogue Party, MP Fouad Makhzoumi, and his wife, Mrs. May Makhzoumi, President of the Makhzoumi Foundation, hosted an American delegation from the U.S. Congress for a dinner at their residence. The delegation included Senator Darin LaHood, Senator Darrell Issa, Senator Dan Kildee, Ed Gabriel, President of the American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL), and members Mike Ahmar, Hania Ahmar, Mackay LaHood, and James McClellan.

The dinner was attended by U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea; Janet Rogan, the United Kingdom’s Regional Ambassador for COP26 for the Middle East and Africa; and Gavin Tench, Political Counsellor at the British Embassy. The Lebanese attendees included Yassine Jaber, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, members of the parliamentary committee, independent MPs, prominent figures from the economic and social sectors, and a group of media representatives. Also present were Dr. Carol Zouein, MP Makhzoumi’s Political Adviser, and Bernard Braidy, Vice President for Media Affairs at the Makhzoumi Group.

In his remarks, Makhzoumi began by commemorating, on the occasion of Independence Day, all the martyrs who gave their lives for Lebanon’s independence from the French Mandate. Among them was his uncle, the late Fouad Ahmad Fayad Makhzoumi, a member of the Maqasid community, who lost his life during a protest against the Mandate on November 13, 1943.

Makhzoumi said that the government was now under Hezbollah’s control. He expressed his regret over the crisis with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, which host more than 400,000 Lebanese citizens who contribute to the Lebanese economy through the remittances they send to support their families back home.

Makhzoumi stressed that the parliamentary elections would serve as an uprising by the Lebanese people against the political class responsible for corruption and the country’s financial and economic collapse.

Makhzoumi praised the support provided by the United States to Lebanon, particularly to the Lebanese Armed Forces. He expressed his hope that this assistance would also extend to other sectors, foremost among them healthcare. He emphasized that citizens’ health was a red line and stressed the urgent need to find a solution to the medicine crisis and encourage the development of the local pharmaceutical industry.