In his speech in the ceremony, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati expressed thanks to Qatar and the ALIPH foundation for financing the project to restore and advance the Lebanese National Library. Despite all the challenges and political, economic, and social concerns that surround Lebanon, the word and culture will have its title in the heart of the capital, as a living witness that Beirut will not die, Mikati said.
Lebanese Minister of Culture Mohamed al-Murtada said that Qatar thankfully donated to restore the library twice, the first in 2008 and the second about a year ago in co-operation with the ALIPH foundation, an international alliance concerned with preserving heritage in conflict areas in the world, following the catastrophe of the Beirut Port explosion.
He said that the National Library contains the books printed and published in Lebanon, as well as the production of the Arab authors in Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and elsewhere, from books in various aspects of culture, which were not published in Lebanon and the production of foreign authors in various languages from all over the world. Lebanese President General Michel Aoun inaugurated the Lebanese National Library in Beirut in December 2018, whose revival and advancement project was funded by Qatar with an amount of $25mn.
Qatar has supported the library again after the Beirut Port incident, where the efforts of the Qatar National Library, ALIPH, Unesco, and other partners to assist cultural institutions and school libraries in Lebanon to rehabilitate their buildings and restore their archives.
