Orphans to Inherit Residence of British Envoy in Lebanon
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BEIRUT — Britain’s ambassador to Lebanon said Tuesday that he has given up his elegant 70-year-old residence in West Beirut and that it will become a Muslim orphanage.
“We decided we no longer had a use for such a large property, so we have given up the lease,” Ambassador John Grey told a reporter. “We are sorry, but diplomatic life is moving away from that quarter of West Beirut.”
Grey, like most other Western diplomats, now lives and works mainly in Christian East Beirut. He said he has rented an apartment in West Beirut for use when needed.
The three-story building, with stained-glass windows, marble floors and a large garden, came under rocket attack last April following the U.S. air raid on Libya by British-based warplanes. The murders of two kidnaped Britons and an American on the same day sparked an exodus of foreigners from West Beirut.
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