Bukhari Meets Geagea: Saudi Role in Five-way Committee Falls in Lebanon Interest

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea received Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari at his residence in Maarab on Saturday. (Lebanese Forces media)
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea received Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari at his residence in Maarab on Saturday. (Lebanese Forces media)
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Bukhari Meets Geagea: Saudi Role in Five-way Committee Falls in Lebanon Interest

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea received Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari at his residence in Maarab on Saturday. (Lebanese Forces media)
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea received Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari at his residence in Maarab on Saturday. (Lebanese Forces media)

The Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari on Saturday warned of the consequences of a vacuum at the top state post in Lebanon, stressing that the Saudi role in the five-way committee meeting is beneficial for the crisis-hit nation.

Bukhari warned of the “consequences of not holding the presidential elections,” after the term of former president Michel Aoun ended in October.

He assured that “the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia aim to secure an international safety net for Lebanon to face the challenges and risks, to preserve coexistence and to preserve Lebanon’s message in its Arab and International milieu.”

The Ambassador’s remarks came during a meeting in Maarab with Lebanese Forces party leader Samir Geagea, held in the presence of MP Melhem Riachi.

A statement released by the Lebanese Forces said that Bukhari and Geagea discussions focused on the need to elect a “sovereign, reformist president outside the political lineups, and on the need to fulfill this entitlement.”

The talks have also stressed the Kingdom’s “firm and unchanging position” towards Lebanon, which will also witness a “positive” effect from the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement.

Lebanon “will be affected positively by the Saudi-Iran agreement,” the LF statement said. As for the role of Saudi Arabia in the five-way meeting held last month in France, “it falls in the interest of Lebanon.”

Saudi Arabia last month took part in a meeting over Lebanon hosted by Paris. The panel included representatives from Saudi Arabia, the US, Egypt, Qatar and France.

The LF statement pointed out that the Saudi-Iran agreement included a common way to resolve differences through peaceful and diplomatic communication and dialogue.

It stressed that Saudi Arabia has always extended a hand for cooperation and dialogue with the countries of the region and the world to preserve security and stability in the region.



UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
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UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)

More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad on Dec. 8, including 800,000 people displaced inside the country and 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.

“Since the fall of the regime in Syria, we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.

“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.

Last January, the UN's high commissioner for refugees urged the international community to back Syria's reconstruction efforts to facilitate the return of millions of refugees.

“Lift the sanctions, open up space for reconstruction. If we don't do it now at the beginning of the transition, we waste a lot of time,” Grandi told a press conference in Ankara, after returning from a trip in Lebanon and Syria.

At a meeting in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Türkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”

The meeting's final statement also pledged support for Syria's new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”

Meanwhile, AFP reported on Tuesday that displaced people are returning to their neighborhoods in Homs, where rebels first took up arms to fight Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011, only to find them in ruins.

In Homs, the Syrian military had besieged and bombarded opposition areas such as Baba Amr, where US journalist Marie Colvin was killed in a bombing in 2012.

“The house is burned down, there are no windows, no electricity,” said Duaa Turki at her dilapidated home in Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

“We removed the rubble, laid a carpet” and moved in, said the 30-year-old mother of four.

“Despite the destruction, we're happy to be back. This is our neighborhood and our land.”

Duaa’s husband spends his days looking for a job, she said, while they hope humanitarian workers begin distributing aid to help the family survive.