BEIRUT: Lebanon’s caretaker interior minister said Tuesday that this week’s slaying of a local politician by what authorities say was a gang of Syrian nationals signals the need to restrict the number of refugees entering the country from neighboring Syria.
Bassam Mawlawi also urged Lebanese to show restraint amid flaring tensions over the slaying of Pascale Suleiman of the Christian nationalist Lebanese Forces party, which has prompted anti-Syrian violence and worsened political tensions among deeply divided Lebanese.
Lebanese military officials have said the slaying in northern Lebanon was part of a robbery, but Suleiman’s party suspects political motives.
The tiny Mediterranean country of over 6 million people, including refugees, hosts what the UN refugee agency says are nearly 785,000 UN-registered Syrian refugees, of which 90 percent rely on aid to survive. Lebanese officials estimate the actual number could be as high as 1.5 or 2 million.
“We are seeing more crimes committed by Syrians,” Mawlawi said at a news conference following a meeting with security and military officials, adding that some 35 percent of detainees in Lebanon’s prisons are Syrian nationals.
“The Syrian presence in Lebanon must be limited, and we emphasized to the security forces of the need to strictly enforce Lebanese laws on displaced Syrians.”
Videos have circulated of angry Lebanese beating Syrians on the streets and destroying cars with Syrian license plates in different parts of the country following Suleiman’s disappearance Sunday and the discovery of his body on Monday. The death has also exacerbated political and sectarian strife among Lebanon’s divided political groups.
“I call on the Lebanese to be rational, and not to be drawn into reactions and incidents that harm security,” Mawlawi said, echoing a statement from Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office urging restraint.
The Lebanese Forces is the most outspoken opponent of the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, and many partisans and allies were quick to accuse the Iran-backed group of being involved in the attack on Suleiman. Hezbollah’s opponents are critical of the group’s ongoing clashes with the Israeli military after the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that have sparked fears of war spilling over into Lebanon.
Lebanon’s military said late Monday that Suleiman was killed when a gang of Syrian nationals tried to steal his car. But the Lebanese Forces have cast doubt on those findings, saying they believe it was a political assassination.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah slammed the Lebanese Forces party and its allies for what he said were baseless accusations and dangerous sectarian rhetoric.
Three judicial officials told The Associated Press that three apprehended Syrian nationals, one woman and two men, have told authorities that they worked for a theft gang whose leader was in Syria.
Suleiman resisted the theft of his car and the assailants hit him several times with the back of a pistol before throwing him into the trunk of the car where he is believed to have suffocated, the officials said. The body was taken into Syria near northeastern Lebanon, and returned to Lebanon on Tuesday.
The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Lebanon official urges restrictions on Syrian refugees after slaying blamed on Syrian gang
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Lebanon official urges restrictions on Syrian refugees after slaying blamed on Syrian gang
- “We are seeing more crimes committed by Syrians,” Mawlawi said
- “The Syrian presence in Lebanon must be limited, and we emphasized to the security forces of the need to strictly enforce Lebanese laws on displaced Syrians”
Secrecy, mines and Israeli strikes complicate removal of Assad-era chemical weapons, says Syrian envoy
- Nevertheless, new authorities made significant progress in their work with Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, he tells UN Security Council
- Syrian authorities grant OPCW experts unrestricted access to 23 sites and since October have been hosting the organization’s longest continuous presence in the country
NEW YORK CITY: Syria’s envoy to the UN said on Thursday that secrecy surrounding the nation’s former chemical weapons program, security risks from land mines and other unexploded ordnance, and Israel’s targeting of suspected weapons sites continue to complicate his government’s efforts to eliminate Assad-era chemical weapons.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting about Syria’s chemical weapons, Ambassador Ibrahim Olabi said the nation’s new authorities had nevertheless made significant progress over the past year in their work with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Despite what he described as “major challenges,” Syria had moved the issue “from a stage of suspicion and manipulation to one of partnership with the OPCW,” he said, adding: “Syria has achieved a qualitative leap in its cooperation with the OPCW.”
This shift is reflected in recent decisions by the watchdog’s executive council and changing positions among its member states, Olabi noted.
Syria’s chemical weapons program has been under international scrutiny since the early years of the country’s civil war, when repeated chemical attacks killed or injured large numbers of civilians. The deadliest incident occurred in 2013 in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, when a sarin attack killed hundreds and triggered international efforts to dismantle the country’s chemical arsenal.
Olabi said the authorities that took over after President Bashar Assad and his regime were toppled in December 2024 were confronting what he called the “heavy legacy of the Assad era,” during which chemical weapons were widely used against civilians. He described the program as an inherited burden rather than a policy of the new government.
“The chemical file is a prime example of these inherited issues, issues of which we were victims,” he added.
Syrian authorities have granted OPCW experts unrestricted access during eight deployments that included visits to 23 sites, he said, and since October have been hosting what he described as the organization’s longest continuous presence in the country.
“This marks the beginning of a sustained presence of the OPCW in Syria,” Olabi added.
Adedeji Ebo, the UN’s deputy high representative for disarmament affairs, said OPCW teams visited 19 locations in Syria last year, four of them previously declared chemical weapons sites and 15 suspected locations, where they conducted interviews and collected samples in their attempts to determine the full scope of undeclared chemical weapons activity.
Some other sites are in dangerous areas, he added, which poses significant risks to both Syrian and international personnel.
“On-site destruction may be required where conditions prevent safe removal,” Ebo said, noting that a recent OPCW decision authorizing expedited on-site destruction of weapons marked a positive step forward.
He also highlighted the reestablishment of Syria’s National Authority for the OPCW and the watchdog’s current, continuous presence in Damascus.
Olabi said Syrian national teams had identified two sites containing empty cylinders previously used to store toxic chemicals and had immediately reported them to the OPCW. Syrian authorities also handed over about 6,000 documents relating to the former regime’s chemical weapons program, he added, and helped arrange interviews with 14 witnesses, including individuals who were involved with the program.
Syrian authorities were also cooperating with international investigators examining chemical attacks by Assad’s government, he said, and accountability and justice for the victims are priorities for the new authorities.
“Syria reiterates its determination to continue the efforts to close this chapter,” Olabi said, adding that there was “no place for chemical weapons in today’s world.”
