Armenian National Assembly (NA) Vice-Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov, who is in Geneva, Switzerland, on a working visit, on Tuesday met with members of the Lebanese delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The meeting was held within the framework of the 131st Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly.

The two parties stressed the need for invigoration and deepening of parliamentary cooperation.

The NA deputy chairman extended his gratitude for the Lebanese parliament’s recognition and condemnation—back in 2000—of the Armenian Genocide, and for Lebanon’s balanced position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Sharmazanov also spoke about the recent destruction of the Holy Martyrs Armenian Church in Deir ez-Zor, Syria, and considered this to be a vivid illustration of cultural genocide. He highlighted that the obliteration of this church is the logical continuation of the destruction of the tens of thousands of monuments in modern-day Turkey.

The Lebanese delegation members, for their part, condemned the blasting of the Armenian church, and noted that such conduct has nothing to do with Islam.