(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BEIRUT, June 5 (KUNA) -- Lebanon has asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help in efforts to secure dispatch of Syrian refugees back home.
Lebanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Director of the Political and Consular Affairs, Ambassador Ghady Khoury, relayed the request during a meeting with UNHCR representative in Lebanon, Mireille Girard, along with other officials of the agency.
Khoury expressed reservations at the UNHCR policy toward the issue, noting that refugees could now return to Syria where conditions improved.
A statement by the ministry indicated that upon the instructions of Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Ambassador Khoury handed his guests a letter demanding the UNHCR to change its approach to the Syrian refugee issue, considering that many areas inside Syria became safe.
In the letter, Lebanon also asks the UNHCR to hand it a devised plan on the procedures intended to be taken to guarantee a safe return of refugees to the war-free zones.
While Girard maintained that the UNHCR is only concerned with the humanitarian causes, she tackled the negotiations the agency is holding to secure suitable humanitarian conditions for the refugees' return.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun has affirmed that Beirut is at odds with the UN on the question of Syrian refugees, estimated at 1.5 million. (end) wsm.rk
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