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.
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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”
Hamas to elect first leader since Sinwar killed by Israel
- Role left vacant since Israel killed Yahya Sinwar in 2024
- Khalil Al-Hayya and Khaled Meshaal are seen as frontrunners
CAIRO: Hamas is expected to elect a new leader this month, two sources in the group told Reuters, filling the role left vacant since Israel killed Yahya Sinwar in 2024 despite concerns that a successor could suffer the same fate.
Khalil Al-Hayya and Khaled Meshaal are seen as frontrunners for the helm at a vital moment for the militant Islamist group, battered by two years of war ignited by its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and facing international demands to disarm.
Both men reside in Qatar and sit on a five-man council that has run Hamas since Israel killed Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7 attack. His predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated by Israel while on a visit to Iran in 2024.
The election process has already begun, the sources said. The leader is chosen in a secret ballot by Hamas’ Shoura Council, a 50-member body that includes Hamas members in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and exile.
A Hamas spokesperson declined to comment.
Tough challenges
The sources said a deputy leader will also be elected to replace Saleh Al-Arouri, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon in 2024.
Sources close to Hamas said it was determined to conclude the vote, though some preferred an extension of collective leadership.
Hamas watchers regard Meshaal as part of a pragmatic wing with good ties to Sunni Muslim countries, and Hayya, the group’s lead negotiator, as part of a camp that deepened its relations with Iran.
Hamas faces some of the toughest challenges since it was founded in 1987. While fighting has largely abated in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire in October, Israel still holds almost half the coastal enclave, attacks continue, and conditions for Gaza’s 2 million people remain dire.
Hamas has also drawn criticism within Gaza because of the heavy toll inflicted by the war, with much of the enclave reduced to ruins and more than 71,000 people killed, according to Gaza health authorities.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others in the October 7 cross-border assault on Israel.
US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza demands Hamas disarm and foresees the enclave being run by a technocratic Palestinian administration overseen by an international body called the Board of Peace.
Targeted by Israel
Hamas has so far refused to disarm, saying the question of armed resistance is a matter for wider debate among Palestinian factions and that it would be ready to surrender its weapons to a future Palestinian state, an outcome Israel has ruled out.
Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Western powers including the United States.
Born in Gaza, Hayya was among Hamas leaders targeted by an Israeli airstrike on Qatar in September.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later expressed regret to the emir of Qatar — a US ally — in a three-way call with Trump and affirmed Israel would not conduct such an attack again in the future, the White House said at the time.
Meshaal previously led Hamas for almost two decades. Israeli agents tried to assassinate him in Jordan in 1997 by injecting him with poison.
His relations with Iran were strained in 2012 when he distanced Hamas from Tehran’s Syrian ally, the now-ousted President Bashar Assad, early in the Arab Spring uprisings.
Hamas was founded as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and is the main rival to the Palestinians’ Fatah national movement led by 90-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas’ founding charter called for the destruction of Israel, although its leaders have at times offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state on all Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.
Israel regards this approach as a ruse.
Analyst Reham Owda said there were limited differences between Hayya and Meshaal over the conflict with Israel but believed Meshaal had better chances as he could “market (Hamas) internationally and help rebuild its capabilities.”
Khalil Al-Hayya and Khaled Meshaal are seen as frontrunners for the helm at a vital moment for the militant Islamist group, battered by two years of war ignited by its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and facing international demands to disarm.
Both men reside in Qatar and sit on a five-man council that has run Hamas since Israel killed Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7 attack. His predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated by Israel while on a visit to Iran in 2024.
The election process has already begun, the sources said. The leader is chosen in a secret ballot by Hamas’ Shoura Council, a 50-member body that includes Hamas members in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and exile.
A Hamas spokesperson declined to comment.
Tough challenges
The sources said a deputy leader will also be elected to replace Saleh Al-Arouri, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon in 2024.
Sources close to Hamas said it was determined to conclude the vote, though some preferred an extension of collective leadership.
Hamas watchers regard Meshaal as part of a pragmatic wing with good ties to Sunni Muslim countries, and Hayya, the group’s lead negotiator, as part of a camp that deepened its relations with Iran.
Hamas faces some of the toughest challenges since it was founded in 1987. While fighting has largely abated in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire in October, Israel still holds almost half the coastal enclave, attacks continue, and conditions for Gaza’s 2 million people remain dire.
Hamas has also drawn criticism within Gaza because of the heavy toll inflicted by the war, with much of the enclave reduced to ruins and more than 71,000 people killed, according to Gaza health authorities.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others in the October 7 cross-border assault on Israel.
US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza demands Hamas disarm and foresees the enclave being run by a technocratic Palestinian administration overseen by an international body called the Board of Peace.
Targeted by Israel
Hamas has so far refused to disarm, saying the question of armed resistance is a matter for wider debate among Palestinian factions and that it would be ready to surrender its weapons to a future Palestinian state, an outcome Israel has ruled out.
Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Western powers including the United States.
Born in Gaza, Hayya was among Hamas leaders targeted by an Israeli airstrike on Qatar in September.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later expressed regret to the emir of Qatar — a US ally — in a three-way call with Trump and affirmed Israel would not conduct such an attack again in the future, the White House said at the time.
Meshaal previously led Hamas for almost two decades. Israeli agents tried to assassinate him in Jordan in 1997 by injecting him with poison.
His relations with Iran were strained in 2012 when he distanced Hamas from Tehran’s Syrian ally, the now-ousted President Bashar Assad, early in the Arab Spring uprisings.
Hamas was founded as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and is the main rival to the Palestinians’ Fatah national movement led by 90-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas’ founding charter called for the destruction of Israel, although its leaders have at times offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state on all Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.
Israel regards this approach as a ruse.
Analyst Reham Owda said there were limited differences between Hayya and Meshaal over the conflict with Israel but believed Meshaal had better chances as he could “market (Hamas) internationally and help rebuild its capabilities.”
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