Minister of State for Displaced Affairs, Moein Al Merehbi, delivered a speech at the workshop organized by the LAF's Center for Research and Strategic Studies under the title "Lebanon and the Displaced Syrians - Burdens and the Priority of Return", under the patronage of Army Commander General Joseph Aoun, in the presence of Resident Representative of the United Nations Program, Philippe Lazzarini.

"I seize this opportunity to congratulate our brave national Army on its new leadership which, in a short period of time, proved its ability to achieve victory over its enemies," the minister said at the beginning of his speech.

Tackling the Syrian displacement issue, Merehbi said "our Syrian brothers are temporary guests in our country. (...) We always called upon them to cooperate with the Lebanese civil, military and security institutions as well as the United Nations agencies, so as to avoid together any suspicious violations or malicious exploitation that endanger us all."

"Since the establishment of the Ministry of State for Displaced Affairs, our work has focused on: building public policy, launching a coordination platform and establishing a monitoring and follow-up mechanism through field visits to displaced communities and host towns, to get acquainted with their needs and coordinate with the relevant ministries and organizations to meet them."

"I have to admit that there have been sides keen on hampering the adoption of a public policy [for displaced], which led to the dispersion of efforts and paved the way for those who exploit the issue of displaced people to market their political agendas and electoral campaigns," Merehbi said, deeming this situation the most serious at present.

"We all reject settlement, as stated in the preamble to the Lebanese Constitution, and the Syrian refugees themselves want to return to their homes. Lebanon has never closed its borders to those who wish to return, and we affirm, day and night, our support for a safe return for all displaced people, under the auspices of the United Nations, in accordance with the principles of international law and human rights. We call upon the bidders to stop making statements that lead to destructive, racist, populist and barbarous acts," he urged

Source: NNA