UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Lebanon Thursday on a "solidarity visit". He was greeted at the airport by caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.
"The Secretary-General has just arrived in Beirut for a solidarity visit to Lebanon," after a long-stalled presidential election and a devastating war between Hezbollah and Israel, his deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told a press briefing.
Guterres would meet political officials and visit UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon during his trip which will last until Saturday, Haq said.
Lebanon's deeply divided political class last week finally elected a new president, Joseph Aoun, after two years of deadlock.
Aoun on Monday named Nawal Salam, until recently the presiding judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, to form a government.
Guterres is visiting as the deadline approaches for full implementation of a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon.
Under the November 27 truce, which ended two months of all-out war between both sides, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period, which expires on January 26.
Hezbollah is to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border with Israel, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in south Lebanon.
With AFP
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