BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon will coordinate refugee returns to Syria only with the United Nations, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Friday, days after a number of refugees left for Syria under an agreement brokered by Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government in the country’s more than six-year-old conflict. It has sent thousands of men to fight the mostly Sunni Syrian rebels and is the dominant force in the Syrian border area where the refugees returned.<\/p>\n
“We will only address this issue in close coordination and joint planning with the U.N. and its specialized agencies,” Hariri said, adding that a “concerning debate” had emerged surrounding refugee returns.<\/p>\n
“We are in support of a speedy and safe return of the Syrian displaced, however, we will, under no circumstances, force the Syrian displaced to return to Syria,” he said at a meeting of the government’s steering committee for displaced persons.<\/p>\n
Lebanese politicians are deeply divided over whether Lebanon should work directly with the Syrian government over the return of refugees, which Hezbollah and its allies advocate.<\/p>\n
Lebanon, which suffered its own fifteen-year civil war, has since 2012 followed a policy of neutrality over the Syrian conflict.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a televised speech urged Beirut to work directly with the Syrian government on refugee returns.<\/p>\n
Lebanon’s infrastructure and communities have been strained by hosting more than one million Syrian refugees, which make up around a quarter of the country’s population.<\/p>\n