Lebanon’s President Michel Suleiman called for an international conference to convene in an effort to mitigate the toll that the Syrian refugee crisis is having on the country.
This call was made before a number of Lebanese ambassadors who visited Suleiman in the Baabda Presidential Palace on Saturday, the National News Agency reported.
The head of state went on to urge Lebanon’s envoys to respect the Baabda Declaration which stipulates that Lebanon will not involve itself in other countries’ conflicts.
Lebanon has been facing difficulties dealing with the increasingly high number of refugees fleeing Syria’s violent uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which has killed more than 70,000 people since its outbreak in March 2011.
The humanitarian crisis that resulted from the huge waves of Syrian exodus to neighboring states prompted different countries to meet in Kuwait in late January at an emergency Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria where the international donors pledged more than $1.5 billion.
However, caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour told NOW on Friday that “till this moment, the Lebanese government has not received the financial aid it was promised.”
Abou Faour also added that “this crisis is now threatening the country’s stability”
