Dissatisfaction of the Lebanese with the results of the Brussels meeting on Syrian refugees

According to Tasnim news agency, the European Union met for the eighth time last week held under the title of supporting Syrian refugees, the practical outcome of which was still based on creating obstacles for Syrians to return to their country. The meeting, which was held in Brussels under the title of “supporting the future of Syria and the region” without the presence of Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Maqdad, focused above all on the problem of refugees and their migration as a challenge for European countries.

Despite serious criticism from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan regarding the situation of refugees, the European Union, by approving a budget of 2.12 billion euros for these three countries in 2024 and 2025, wants to prevent their departure from the Mediterranean route to Europe.

At the same time, the European countries, in continuation of their hostile policies towards Damascus, have considered the condition of allocating the said aid to be the prevention of the refugees from returning to Syria by the countries of Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. In fact, these countries are preventing this with the argument that the return of refugees is a form of legitimizing the Damascus government. Meanwhile, some European countries in this meeting oppose this and there has been a split in the European Union in this regard. In a report, Al Jazeera emphasized that, unlike Germany and France, Southern European countries wanted to help Syrian refugees return to their country due to the illegal immigration case, but Berlin and Paris prevented this.

On the other hand, the discussion of the approved aid for the displaced was also one of the sidelines of the so-called meeting to support the future of Syria and the region. These aids, which amount to 1.56 billion euros annually, have been allocated in such a way that one billion will be for Turkey and the rest for Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. In the meantime, it has not been determined how the amount of 560 million euros will be distributed among the players. First of all, the share of aid allocated for this country was lower than expected. In addition, at the Brussels meeting, Lebanon’s request to help Syrians return to their country was opposed. Even the Foreign Minister of Lebanon, Abdullah Bouhabib, emphasized regarding this meeting that Europe has left Lebanon alone in the face of the refugee issue. Paris insists on the case of Syrian refugees that EU financial aid is more like a political bribe than a real help to solve the problem. However, there have been whispers in Beirut that the Lebanese government should directly enter into bilateral negotiations with the Damascus government in order to overcome the consequences of the presence of Syrian refugees, which has been welcomed by the Syrian government. “RTL”>end of message/