Hariri: Lebanon choking under refugee crisis

BEIRUT: Lebanon is choking under the burden of some 1.3 million Syrian refugees, constituting one third of its population, while striving to combat terrorism spilling over from the Syrian conflict, Future Movement leader Saad Hariri warned.

Speaking in an interview published Monday in French daily Le Figaro, Hariri sounded the alarm over deteriorating security in Lebanon that he largely blamed on Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad’s regime.

“This interference by a Lebanese party militia in foreign territory took place without asking the Lebanese state and people, under the pretext of preventing terrorist groups from coming to Lebanon,” Hariri said, noting that the same groups use Hezbollah’s role in Syria as a pretext to attack Lebanon.

“Moreover, Lebanon is dealing with the influx of 1.3 million refugees, which occurred in a span of three years, a matter that no country can sustain,” Hariri said, calling for quick international assistance for the refugee crisis and to help the Army counter terrorist groups.

Hariri, a Saudi-backed former prime minister, rejected suggestions that Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi doctrine, a rigid sect of Sunni Islam, is behind the rise of Sunni extremist groups such as ISIS, arguing that Saudi King Abdullah’s support was essential for the creation of the international coalition to combat ISIS.

“The nucleus of ISIS is made of former Al-Qaeda prisoners who were released by the regimes of Bashar Assad and (former Iraqi Prime Minister) Nouri al-Maliki, who thought that by creating this terrorist scarecrow they would become indispensable for the big powers, while in fact they have created a monster that became uncontrollable,” Hariri said.

He deplored the West’s delay in taking military action against ISIS and reluctance to support the moderate Syrian opposition in the early stages of the uprising, saying this encouraged many frustrated rebels to join the ranks of extremist group.

“The airstrikes against ISIS are necessary but not sufficient. In the long term, it is imperative to support the moderates, notably those who are opposed to religious intolerance and who advocate separating politics from religion,” Hariri said.

He deplored that in Syria “the people are now condemned to an impossible choice between ISIS and Assad’s regime.”