The President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, received at Baabda Palace the Regional Director of the Middle East Department at the World Bank, Dalia Khalifa, at the head of a delegation, on the occasion of her assuming her new duties, which include Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Iran. Khalifa expressed her pride in assuming this responsibility, stressing her keenness to work quickly to respond to the urgent needs in Lebanon, and asked Aoun for his guidance regarding priorities and what is required from the World Bank Group in the next stage. Khalifa stressed the World Bank’s keenness to continue its partnership with Lebanon and respond to its needs, and its readiness to move within existing programs and direct priorities towards the most affected areas. For his part, Aoun stressed Lebanon's need at this stage for the support of the World Bank and its partners, especially to help the state respond to the needs of more than 600,000 citizens who have returned to their regions, in light of the extensive damage to a large number of towns and villages, some of which were almost completely destroyed. Aoun also received Minister of Social Affairs, Haneen Al-Sayyid, and briefed her on the work the ministry is doing to prepare an integrated plan for the return of families, early recovery, and the restoration of basic services to areas affected by the Israeli war, in addition to preliminary estimates of needs and priorities that are supposed to be determined in the first phase, and implementation and financing mechanisms. The President also received the head of the negotiating delegation, former Ambassador Simon Karam, and briefed him on the deliberations of the meetings held in Rome last week between the Lebanese, American, and Israeli delegations, and provided him with his directions for the next stage.