Naharnet - Head of Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council Says Time for Syrian Refugees to Return to Their Country, May 10 2012

The head of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council Nasri Khoury relayed a message from the Syrian leadership that it is time for Syrian refugees in Lebanon to be returned to their country, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Thursday.

He explained that calm has been restored to Syria after international monitors entered the country and the United Nations and Arab League ceasefire plan has been implemented.

Ministerial sources told the daily that some Lebanese officials attributed the message to the large number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are subject to strict security measures, similar to those imposed at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.

They voiced fears that some members of extremist groups, such as al-Qaida, may have infiltrated their ranks.

Some officials are using this fear as an excuse to justify the “preemptive call for the refugees to return to Syria, which would help halt the infiltration of fundamentalists.”

Al-Hayat said that the Higher Relief Council only aids Syrian refugees located in the North and not those in the Bekaa.

Several ministers, who are allied to Damascus, had demanded that they be returned to Syria out of fears that they may be harboring terrorists, it added.

Meanwhile, the March 14 General Secretariat announced on Wednesday that it will head a delegation to visit the Bekaa town of Arsal to inspect the situation of the Syrian refugees.

An Nahar daily reported on Thursday that the delegation will head to the Bekaa on Sunday.

It will be comprised of Bekaa MPs who are members of the March 14 forces, as well as MPs Marwan Hamadeh and Nadim Gemayel, among others.

March 14 sources told the daily that this visit differs than previous ones that were made to Wadi Khaled in the North seeing as Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria is much longer than its northern border and it therefore witnesses constant infiltrations by the Syrian army.

The most recent of these violations took place on Wednesday when a 70-year-old Lebanese woman was killed in cross-border fire in Lebanon’s al-Qaa village.

On previous occasions, Syrian troops had crossed into Lebanese territory in pursuit of what they called armed gang members and army deserters.

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/39695