by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Lebanese FM Gebran Bassil cites "campaign of intimidation" to keep refugees from returning, wants Syria to guarantee property rights, exempt refugees from conscription.
Lebanon's foreign minister urged Syria on
Monday to offer guarantees on property rights and military service to
encourage Syrian refugees to return home.
Tiny Lebanon has been host to more than a
million refugees from neighboring Syria since the war there began in
2011 though some have returned as fighting has eased in more and more
areas of the country.
"In the process of encouraging returns, the
Syrian government can make a big contribution, on top of the
reconciliations that are already happening, by giving security
guarantees," Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil told a news
conference in Beirut.
More than half of Syria's prewar 22 million
population was displaced by the war, over 5 million of whom left the
country as refugees, mostly to adjacent Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.
Syrian President Bashar Assad government's
has recovered most of the country with the help of Russia and Iran,
clawing back rebel enclaves in what Damascus calls reconciliation deals.
Bassil, speaking alongside visiting Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said he hoped the pace of
returns would increase and that Damascus could help smooth this with
guarantees on "individual property rights and military service."
Aid agencies that work with refugees have
cited concerns over the loss of property and conscription into the
Syrian army as big reasons discouraging Syrians from returning, along
with fear of reprisals.
Bassil also said guarantees from Damascus
would help end what he called an "ongoing campaign of intimidation" to
stop refugees from going home, without elaborating.
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2019/02/12/lebanon-seeks-guarantees-from-syria-to-encourage-refugees-return/
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