Lebanese President Michel Aoun had a meeting on Friday afternoon with Dr. Ian Collard, the newly-appointed British Ambassador to Lebanon.
Dr. Collard’s mission in Lebanon started earlier this month after his predecessor, Dr. Martin Longden, departed from Beirut at the end of his 6-month mission as Chargé d’Affaires.
Prior to his appointment as British Ambassador to Lebanon, Dr. Collard had been serving as Deputy Ambassador at the British Embassy in Kabul since March 2020.
This was after he had served as the Head of Counter-Terrorism at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London.
At the FCO, he headed the North America Department and also served in the Middle East and U.N. departments.
When London hosted the Olympics in 2012, he was leading the FCO’s security and counter-terrorism activities.
Overall, the diplomat has nearly two decades of experience with the British diplomatic sector.
A holder of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, in addition to a Doctorate, in biological and anthropological sciences, Dr. Collard’s previous roles include Ambassador to Panama and serving at the U.N. Security Council in New York as well as at the British Embassy in Washington DC.
During the Friday meeting, Dr. Collard and President Aoun discussed the latest political developments in Lebanon as well as Lebanese-British relations.
