Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani meets Lebanon’s Walid Jumblatt, to discuss regional developments, including efforts to resolve the presidential crisis and support for Lebanon’s institutions.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met Walid Jumblatt, the former president of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party, on Tuesday in Doha.

Sheikh Mohammed, who is also Qatar’s foreign minister, and Jumblatt discussed the developments in Lebanon and in the region, according to a statement by Doha’s foreign ministry.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) separately reported that both sides discussed the developments in southern Lebanon and “domestic affairs.”

“Jumblatt commended Qatar’s role, particularly its ongoing efforts and initiatives to halt the hostilities in Gaza, as well as its involvement within the Quintet Committee to assist Lebanon in overcoming the presidential crisis,” NNA reported.

The report was referring to the five-party committee aimed at resolving Lebanon’s political impasse. The group includes Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United States, and France. 

The group was formed last year under an initiative led by the French Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian in an effort to resolve Lebanon’s political impasse.

The group held their first meeting in Paris in February last year and met again in Doha on July 17, 2023.

The Lebanese presidency seat has been vacant since former president Michel Aoun left office in October 2022. The country has since failed to elect a president at least 12 times.

The Gulf state previously assumed a major diplomatic role in Lebanon in 2008, when it held talks that resulted in an agreement between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah following an 18-month political crisis.

Meanwhile, southern Lebanon has been a battlefield since last October between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza triggered the flare-up that has raised concerns over the outbreak of another war in Lebanon.

Israel killed at least 355 people in southern Lebanon, including children and three journalists, according to figures by the Lebanese health ministry, last updated on May 16.

Lebanon has already been grappling with a dire economic crisis that has worsened since 2019. 

The Lebanese currency has lost more than 95 percent of its value to the U.S. dollar and the country is still reeling from the impact of the 2020 Beirut Port explosion.

Qatar has long expressed its support for Lebanon and its different institutions throughout its economic crisis.

On May 13, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani reiterated his country’s support for Lebanon’s military during a meeting with Lebanese Army Commander General Joseph Aoun.

The meeting came three months after QFFD delivered the sixth and final batch of diesel and mazut to Lebanon under a $30 million agreement signed between Doha and Beirut in August 2023. 

The agreement stipulated the delivery of fuel for six months.

This came after Qatar pledged $60 million in assistance to the Lebanese military in 2022. The previous year, Qatar announced a year-long initiative to provide the army with 70 tonnes of food aid on a monthly basis.