Aoun on Naturalizing Syrians: Our Land Could be Stolen in Front of our Own Eyes

Head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun said on Monday that the way in which the international community and the United Nations are addressing the Syrian refugees issue in Lebanon “is dubious” and raises fears of hidden intentions to naturalize them.

“The international community and the United Nations are addressing the issue of displaced Syrians in a dubious and suspicious manner. It makes us believe that there are intentions to impose naturalization on us as a fait accompli,” Aoun told As Safir daily.

Raising the issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, the MP voiced fears that the same scenario might repeat itself but this time with the Syrians, saying: “They kept telling us that naturalizing the Palestinians in Lebanon is only a scarecrow until their presence after tens of years became a rooted reality.

“No one told us how they were going to return to their homeland, and now I am afraid that our land might be stolen in front of our own eyes to be used in solving the crises of others at Lebanon's expense,” he concluded.

Concerns that refugees could be naturalized in Lebanon arose after Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil warned that there are indirect efforts to give the Lebanese nationality to displaced Syrians.

His comments triggered a series of reactions that assured the issue has not been suggested by international bodies.

Recently, the World Bank and Islamic Development Bank have signed agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars to help Lebanon cope with the large number of Syrian refugees who were displaced by their country's civil war.

Lebanon is home to more than 1 million registered Syrian refugees, or nearly a quarter of the country's 4.5 million people. Lebanon says that another half a million Syrians live in the country as well.

D.A.

M.T.