Bassil: We Reject Iraqi Refugees, ISIL will be Defeated

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said on Monday that Lebanon rejects to welcome Iraqi refugees, asking them to remain in their land.

“Calls to welcome displaced Iraqis are rejected. We urge them to stay in their land,” Bassil said during a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Hussein al-Shahristani in Baghdad.

But we welcome Iraqi tourists in Lebanon, he said.

Bassil said the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now named Islamic State, will be defeated in Iraq, but warned that its extremist thoughts could remain.

“What will happen after ISIL? Is it going to be fed intellectually and financially?” he asked.

Bassil also warned that the Christians in the Middle East were under threat.

Islamic State (IS) jihadists launched in early June a major offensive in northern Iraq, sweeping Iraqi security forces aside.

The militants have declared a "caliphate" straddling vast areas of Iraq and Syria.

Human rights groups and residents say IS fighters have been demanding that religious minorities in the Mosul region either convert or leave, unleashing violent reprisals on any who refuse.

Members of minority groups including the Yazidis, Christians, Shabak and Turkmen, remain under threat of kidnapping or death at the hands of the jihadists.

“If things remain the way they are, then the Christians will be under threat not just in Mosul but in the entire Orient,” Bassil said.