Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer
Beirut: As the 17-member International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting in Munich agreed on a putative plan to usher in a ceasefire in Syria next week, Prime Minister Tammam Salam met with the UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura to discuss how best to protect Lebanon.
Salam, who is in Germany to attend the three-day Munich Security Conference (MSC) that has gathered senior officials from around the world, wanted to know whether the just agreed upon deal included provisions to look after the estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The affable prime minister faced this conundrum a week ago in London when a donors conference raised the question indirectly, although he expressed some satisfaction that no senior official spoke of “naturalising the refugees”.
What was unclear last week was Lebanon’s share of the over $10 billion (Dh36.72 billion) pledged to assist Syrian refugees, even if Salam insisted that Beirut “will not abandon [the] demand that the refugees be allowed to return to their homeland”.
It was unclear whether the war in Syria, which erupted in 2011, will end around a round-table in Munich or elsewhere. Of course, MSC delegates who have gathered every February since 2011 in Bavaria, have discussed the concern over the past five years with few prospects for a permanent ceasefire. Many raised similar preoccupations without any concrete ideas to bring warring factions together.
Notwithstanding their latest wishes, the same high-ranking officials who hammered the MSC accord failed to reach compromises, each pursuing contradictory agendas. Lebanon, like several neighbouring countries, paid a heavy price because of Hezbollah’s deployments on various battlefields in Syria, which directly affected Lebanese internal harmony. Army appointments were postponed, Internal Security Forces (ISF) were over-stretched, and politicians bickered with no end in sight.
On Friday, the Minister of Interior Nouhad Al Mashnouq discussed the latest security challenges with Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michel Aoun, as Beirut needed to fill several imminent vacancies in the leadership of the ISF. “Aoun is aware of the problems [that the country is confronted with],” said the minister, who also revealed that the FPM wished to restart dormant items on the state’s plate. He said there were no reasons to delay municipal elections, expected next May. In a moment of hubris, he said he expected presidential elections “this year”, without specifying whether parliament would fulfil its duties during the remaining 10 months of 2016.
In Munich, meanwhile, leading powers further pledged to accelerate and expand the delivery of humanitarian aid and revive the moribund peace process, even if Geneva 3 ended in a whimper.
