Geagea: Normalization With Syria Aims at Lifting Assad

Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea during an interview with Reuters, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea during an interview with Reuters, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Geagea: Normalization With Syria Aims at Lifting Assad

Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea during an interview with Reuters, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea during an interview with Reuters, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea accused some parties of using the file of the displaced in order to normalize relations with Syria and revive the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Geagea said: “We are currently witnessing the biggest political scheme by blaming us of impeding the return of displaced persons to their country.”

Emphasizing that the LF supported the unconditional return of the refugees, he said that the main reason for normalizing relations with Syria under the pretext of resolving the displaced file was aimed at reviving the rule of Assad.

He noted that the Syrian regime president “does not appear to be willing to secure their return at a time when Syria is undergoing a demographic change.”

Geagea stressed that Iran was working to reinforce Assad, and that Hezbollah was seeking to market this strategy, “for the simple reason that Tehran has invested in the regime and spent billions of dollars… and therefore cannot allow it to weaken or to be lost due to the negative repercussions on Iran’s internal arena.”

“We will maintain communication with the international community to secure safe areas in Syria,” he said.

The LF leader underlined that the organized campaign to normalize relations between the two countries came in the context of the previous campaign led by Foreign Affairs Minister Gebran Bassil to invite Syria to attend the Arab Economic Summit hosted by Lebanon.

“The pretext of normalizing the relations between the two countries as a condition for the return of the displaced is an open attempt to use this file to lift the Assad regime; otherwise Assad would have already invited the displaced to return,” Geagea remarked, adding that the Syrian president was the first to assert that their presence in hosting countries comforted him internally.



One in 10 Children Screened in UNRWA Clinics are Malnourished

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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One in 10 Children Screened in UNRWA Clinics are Malnourished

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

One in 10 children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza since 2024 has been malnourished, the agency said on Tuesday.

"Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March," UNRWA's Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.

Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip.

"One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries," Reuters quoted Touma as saying.

"Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out," Touma said.

On May 19, Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza, allowing limited UN deliveries to resume. However, UNRWA continues to be banned from bringing aid into the enclave.

Israel and the United States have accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing from UN-led aid operations - which Hamas denies. They have instead set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, using private US security and logistics firms to transport aid to distribution hubs, which the UN has refused to work with.

On Monday, UNICEF said that last month more than 5,800 children were diagnosed with malnutrition in Gaza, including more than 1,000 children with severe, acute malnutrition. It said it was an increase for the fourth month in a row.