The Ambassador of the United 

States of America,

His Excellency David Hale,

Honourable guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I met David Hale long time ago, when Ryan Crocker was ambassador of the United States to Lebanon.

The same Ryan who came with Marwan Hamade in June 1982 and freed me from Moukhtara at the time beseiged by the Israelis.

During your short stay here in Lebanon, we met several times here or in Beirut, and your main concern was the stability in Lebanon and helping its institutions.

Thanks to you David, the Lebanese army is the fourth recipient of military aid in the world from the United States.

Thanks to the exchange of information, between security agencies from your side and Lebanese side, the fight against terrorism is successful.

One of your main concerns was to try to help us profit from the potential huge offshore gaz resources, but the Lebanese side failed up till now to grasp this golden opportunity.

You encouraged us to adopt dialogue, directly or indirectly, and we did a lot together trying to diffuse so many issues. We succeeded in some places, but failed in others.

Now that the political establishment is criticised from all sides of all kinds of abuses, rightly or wrongly, by certain medias and the various unlimited groups of civil society, let us implement the plan of Akram Chehayeb for the garbage crisis.

As for the presidency, and the new electoral law, it seems that we have to wait for somebody to take us to a new Doha, maybe to an island in the Persian gulf, or the Indian ocean to solve it. Let us hope that it won’t be too long waiting.

David, two years ago, the same month, the ninth of September, you were here with us, sharing our terrible pain in our last farewell to May Joumbaltt, my late mother.

We will never forget your standing among us. In this respect, and away from the upheavels of politics, in my name and in the name of the Joumblatt family, allow me to consider you as one of our best friends.

Good luck and take care.