- President Michel Aoun said Lebanon can no longer cope with Syrian refugees and urged the international community to help return them to their homeland
- Aoun discussed the economic, political, security and social threats that might arise if a solution is not reached concerning displaced Syrians
- There are one million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon, but estimates reveal the true number is around 1.5 million
- Aoun called on international organizations not to “frighten” refugees who want to return, emphasizing dangers to Lebanon's security
Declaring that Lebanon can no longer cope with the presence of Syrian refugees, President Michel Aoun Monday appealed to the international community for help in securing their safe return to their homeland.
Speaking during a meeting at Baabda Palace with ambassadors to Lebanon of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Aoun said that the refugees’ repatriation should not be linked to finding a political solution to the 6-year-old war in Syria.
In letters sent to the presidents of the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China, as well as to the U.N. secretary-general and heads of the European Union and the Arab League through their ambassadors, Aoun urged the leaders to concentrate on dealing with the core of the Syrian refugee crisis, in addition to its repercussions, a statement released by the president’s media office said.
“The United Nations and the international community are duty bound to exert all possible efforts to ensure the appropriate conditions for the safe return of the displaced Syrians to their country, especially to accessible stable areas or de-escalated areas without this being linked to a political solution,” Aoun told the envoys.
He briefed the ambassadors on the “demographic, security, economic, educational and social impact of the persistence of the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon without a solution, and called on the international community to shoulder its responsibility in solving this crisis.”
Aoun also touched on the economic, political, security and social threats posed by the failure to find a solution to the suffering of the displaced Syrians, the statement said.
The president pointed out that there are safe areas in Syria that can accommodate Syrian refugees who are now in Lebanon.
“Our meeting today is a preventive one because the causes of the Syrian refugee flow, if not tackled, might lead to an explosion of the situation, given the density of the number of refugees [in Lebanon], where 153 refugees live in 1 square kilometer, while this ratio is no more than five refugees per square kilometer in other countries hosting refugees.”
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Aoun warned of the repercussions of any potential security flare-up in Lebanon if a solution to the Syrian crisis is not found and refugees do not return to their country. “The consequences [of this flare-up] will not be confined to Lebanon only,” he said.
Aoun’s appeal came a few days after Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks with Pope Francis in the Vatican focusing on the Syrian refugee crisis and its security and economic impact on Lebanon’s stability.
There are at least one million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon – equivalent to almost a quarter of its native population of around four million – although the authorities estimate the real number of Syrian refugees to be closer to 1.5 million.
The Baabda meeting was attended by U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Richard, Russian Ambassador Alexander Zasypkin, Chinese Ambassador Wang Kejian, French Ambassador Bruno Foucher, and British Ambassador Hugo Shorter.
Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Deputy U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Philippe Lazzarini, EU Ambassador Christina Lassen and Arab League representative Abdel-Rahman Solh were also present.
Aoun emphasized that Lebanon’s security is as important as that of the refugees and called on international organizations not to “frighten” refugees who want to go home.
“It is in the interest of all the world’s countries for the situation in Lebanon not to explode because if this happens, everyone will be affected,” he said. “We don’t anticipate a swift solution in Syria. I am afraid that Lebanon will not be able to endure the refugee crisis more than it has so far,” Aoun said.
For their part, the international representatives reaffirmed their strong support in assisting Lebanon to mitigate the impact of the Syrian crisis, according to a statement issued by the special U.N. coordinator’s office.“The ambassadors and the deputy U.N. special coordinator voiced their deep appreciation for Lebanon’s hospitality."
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“The ambassadors and the deputy U.N. special coordinator voiced their deep appreciation for Lebanon’s hospitality, solidarity and generosity in hosting Syrian refugees for nearly seven years,” the statement said. “They expressed their full understanding of the concerns that are being voiced by Lebanese citizens. The ambassadors and the deputy special coordinator underlined that a return of refugees to their country of origin must take place in safety, dignity and voluntarily, in accordance with principles of international law.”
The statement said the P5 and the U.N. remain “committed to supporting Lebanon’s security, stability and territorial integrity, and call for increased international solidarity to meet the humanitarian needs of Lebanese, Syrian and other vulnerable communities.”
The meeting comes as several parties in Lebanon have ramped up their demands for Syrian refugees to start returning home, claiming that areas of the country are now safe enough to allow this.
Meanwhile, Parliament is slated to meet Tuesday on the first of three successive legislative sessions to elect members of parliamentary committees and begin debating the draft 2017 state budget in a bid to ratify the country’s first fiscal plan in over a decade.
The legislative sessions come amid optimism expressed by rival factions that the state budget would be endorsed by Parliament this week, a move that would put an end to past years’ uncontrolled extrabudgetary spending in the billions of dollars.
“The ratification of the budget will restore control to the country’s financial system and push toward boosting internal and monetary stability,” Future Movement MP Mohammad Hajjar said in a statement.
But the Kataeb Party warned the government against committing “legal and constitutional violations” in the endorsement of the state budget. “An audit [of past years’ extrabudgetary spending] is part of these constitutional rules,” said a statement issued after the weekly meeting of the party’s political bureau chaired by party chief MP Sami Gemayel.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
