The Lebanese government began the first official steps to repatriate displaced Syrians after receiving assurances from Russia and the United States about their safety.
The Russian initiative is based on the formation of a Russian-Lebanese committee that would cooperate with the United Nations to resolve the refugee crisis.
Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil is set to meet with US officials on the sidelines of his participation in a conference in Washington to discuss the Syrian refugee file, among other issues.
A Lebanese official source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Lebanon remains committed to finding a comprehensive settlement to the refugee crisis, stressing that there was no sustainable solution except through a “voluntary, complete, comprehensive and safe return of the displaced Syrians.”
Lebanon “will provide all means to achieve a full, dignified and safe return, and will guarantee all means to make it successful,” the sources noted.
On Monday, a new batch of hundreds of Syrian refugees left Lebanon, in the latest coordination between Beirut and Damascus.
AFP reported that men, women and children of all ages - piled into cars, minivans and tractors - have left the border town of Arsal.
Security forces checked the identity papers of those about to make the journey back to Syria with suitcases, boxes of food and even live poultry, said an AFP photographer.
“The voluntary repatriation of around 850 Syrian refugees started” on Monday morning, Lebanon's state news agency NNA reported.
On Sunday, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea revealed “an arrangement between Russia and the US to allow the return of about two million Syrian refugees to their homeland under Russian-US guarantees and with Russian-led arrangements on the ground in Syria.”
“This is good news for us as Lebanese, and it is very important that the Lebanese state take advantage of this opportunity so that Lebanon can benefit the most from this agreement,” he said.
Geagea noted that the news coincided with Bassil’s imminent visit to Washington on Monday “where he will have a great opportunity to agree with US officials and then the Russians” on the procedures of the return of the displaced.
Minister of State for Displaced Affairs, Mouin al-Merhebi told Asharq Al-Awsat that after the Helsinki summit last week between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the idea of coordination between the Russians, the Americans, Lebanon and the UNHCR began.
“It seems that other parties are expected to join efforts and discuss how to ensure the voluntary and dignified return of refugees.”
Russia had proposed to the United States to cooperate on the return of refugees to Syria, days after the summit between Putin and Trump, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
