Date: Mar 13, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Lebanon urges conference to help in refugees return Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: Lebanese leaders called Tuesday for an international conference on Syrian refugees that opened in Brussels to help secure the return of displaced Syrians in Lebanon to their country. The separate calls by President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri were the latest in a string of Lebanese appeals to the international community to help reduce Lebanon’s burdens of hosting more than 1 million displaced Syrians on its territory. The Brussels III Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region, that began in the Belgian capital Tuesday and will go on until Thursday, seeks to garner financial support for states that host large numbers of Syrian refugees. With an estimated more than 1 million Syrian refugees straining Lebanon’s flagging economy and frail infrastructure, the Lebanese government is asking for over $2 billion in aid at the conference. Speaking to a French parliamentary delegation at Baabda Palace, Aoun said: “We wish that France and European states will help Lebanon in returning displaced Syrians to safe areas in Syria, especially the reports we are receiving say that those who have returned are living in reassuring conditions.” Aoun added that the number of displaced Syrians who have returned from Lebanon to Syria on a voluntary basis has so far reached 167,000, according to a statement released by the president’s media office. Hariri, who is scheduled to leave Beirut Wednesday to head the Lebanese delegation at the Brussels conference, described the meeting as an “essential opportunity” to discuss developing stances toward the return of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to their country. Hariri is set to address the conference Thursday. “We are going to the Brussels conference because we are suffering from the crisis of the refugees whose return to their homeland we want as early as possible. But there is a reality that we need to deal with, and that is that the refugees are in Lebanon and, therefore, we must work to help them and support the host communities,” Hariri told reporters after meeting Aoun at Baabda Palace ahead of the conference. “We will discuss in Brussels the prospects of developing [Lebanon’s] position with regard to the refugees’ return.” The international community has been vocal in refusing to assist in returns to Syria until a political solution to the almost 8-year-old war there has been reached. The refugee crisis and Lebanon’s ties with the regime in Syria have caused a split among Lebanese parties. Aoun and other Lebanese officials have said that safe zones exist inside the country where refugees can return to immediately. The Free Patriotic Movement, which Aoun founded, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have been pushing for open dialogue with the Syrian government on the refugee return. But Hariri and his Future Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party, however, have dug their heels in against direct communication with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime before a solution to the 8-year-old war there has been reached. Asked why Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Saleh Gharib was excluded from the delegation, Hariri, who will be accompanied by the education and social affairs ministers, said: “The prime minister is going to Brussels and he is the one who represents Lebanon, speaks in its name and handles relevant affairs.” Gharib, a pro-Syria minister, has denounced his exclusion from the Lebanese delegation despite holding a portfolio directly concerned with the issue. The first two days of the Brussels conference will be devoted to dialogue involving more than 1,000 participants from regional civil society groups, officials and donor states. They will discuss “key themes affecting the Syrian people and the international response to the crisis,” a statement on the European Council’s website said. This will be followed Thursday by a meeting of foreign ministers and top officials for political discussions on the Syria crisis, after which funding pledges will be announced. Speaking on other topics after meeting Aoun, Hariri said he briefed the president on his visit to Saudi Arabia where he held talks Monday with Saudi King Salman on boosting cooperation between the two countries. “I want to encourage our brothers in Gulf states to return to Lebanon as they used to do in the past after the kingdom’s decision to lift the ban on the travel of its citizens to Lebanon,” Hariri said. “God willing, the other [Arab Gulf] states will take similar decisions as soon as possible.” Hariri said he discussed with Aoun topics on the agenda of next week’s Cabinet session, including key appointments to the six-member Military Council that were postponed last week due to differences over the nomination of some members to fill four vacant posts, including an Army chief of staff. “There will be no Cabinet session this week. God willing, this issue [military appointments] will be finished next week,” he said. Hariri said he also discussed with Aoun attempts to fight corruption and curb the waste of public funds, deemed crucial for shoring up the ailing economy, burdened by $85 billion in national debt. “My position and that of the president are the same and Speaker Nabih Berri is supporting us in this [anti-corruption drive]. There will be no protection for any person found guilty whoever he might be,” Hariri said. Asked to comment on Hezbollah’s self-proclaimed campaign against corruption, Hariri said: “Hezbollah or the Future Movement is not headed toward accusing each other of corruption. Instead, they are heading toward terminating corruption along with the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces and all the parties.” The Future Movement’s parliamentary bloc said Hariri’s participation at the head of the Lebanese delegation to the Brussels conference was “sufficient to cover all aspects of national and official representation.” “The prime minister will definitely outline Lebanon’s official position [at Brussels conference] away from any outbidding and interpretations,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting chaired by Sidon MP Bahia Hariri. “The bloc stresses that sectoral administrative and financial reforms committed by the government in its policy statement are the real and sound gateway to halt the waste [of public funds], fight corruption and prevent the theft of public funds,” the statement said.