By Daily Star Lebanon

BEIRUT:
Prime Minister Tammam Salam Thursday warned the international community
against looking to Lebanon as a place of “permanent asylum” for Syrian
refugees.

“We want to stress on the temporary nature of Syrian
presence in Lebanon. … [Lebanon] isn’t a country for permanent asylum,
and can only be perceived as a final country for settlement by the
Lebanese themselves,” Salam said, addressing the 71st session of the
United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“We will continue to
welcome Syrian refugees as long as their lives are still under threat
… We are doing what we can but we have very limited resources,” he
said.

Salam had stressed earlier in the day that priority should
go toward relocating Syrian refugees to their country instead of
“naturalizing” them.

“We refuse to naturalize refugees in Lebanon
because our priority is to relocate them to their country of origin,”
Salam told Al Arabiya during an interview.

The prime minister also
called on international organizations to provide Lebanon with adequate
aid to help manage the 1.5 million Syrian refugees in the country.

“Infrastructure-related
aid that coming in from the outside has been limited and doesn’t
suffice in allowing us to deal with the refugee crisis,” he said.

On
Monday, the prime minister had addressed a U.N. summit on refugees and
migrants on the sidelines of the assembly, calling on the international
community to set up a detailed road map to ensure the safe return of
Syrian refugees in Lebanon to their homeland.

Just over 1 million
Syrian refugees in Lebanon are registered with the U.N., but the actual
number is believed to be much higher. The Lebanese government has
repeatedly complained that aid pledges to help Lebanon cope with Syrian
refugees have not been fulfilled by donor countries.

The prime
minister also reminded the U.N. General Assembly that Lebanon is still
“under the threat” of terrorism and that facing terrorism requires
“immense efforts.”

“Lebanon is currently engaged in an open war
against terrorism that has cost [the country] both civilian and military
lives over the years,” he said.