United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag met Monday with Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi, with talks featuring high on the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Kaag stressed that UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s report is neither related to Lebanon nor to the Syrian refugees.
"There is no plan or intention to naturalize displaced Syrians in Lebanon," Kaag said.
She added that Ban sticks to the letter sent to him by Prime Minister Tammam Salam last January, in which he stressed that the UN is working on returning refugees to their country.
For his part, Azzi noted that the talks focused on ensuring humanitarian aid to Lebanon, especially that it is the country that is hosting the biggest number of displaced people with respect to its area.
“We are afraid of the Syrian refugees remaining in Lebanon, not because of the UN’s politics or of the report issued by the UN Secretary General [Ban Ki-moon], but because of the Syrian (refugee) status in Lebanon and the Syrian war,” he said.
He added that “the obstruction of the necessary political and military solutions to the crisis in Syria will make the Syrians’ stay last longer,” pointing out that the Lebanese people should prevent that from happening, not only to protect Lebanon, but Syria also.