Derbas Says Lebanon's Share from Donors Pledges Yet to be Disclosed

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said on Wednesday that Lebanon's share from the Third International Pledging Conference for Syria held in Kuwait the day before hasn't been decided yet.

He pointed out that the U.N. refugees agency will decide later the country's share from the $3.8 billion pledges made by international donors to help alleviate war-torn Syria's humanitarian crisis.

The minister said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper that Lebanon is seeking to allocate 37 percent of the donations to renovate local projects after the Syrian refugees influx tested the country's limited resources.

Derbas praised the role Kuwait to hold a successful conference, pointing out that the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah “the donor countries will follow up the spending issue.”

He quoted al-Sabah as stressing the “strong ties between Lebanon and Kuwait.”

Kuwait's Emir opened on Tuesday the one-day conference by calling for a political solution to the Syrian conflict which is now in its fifth year.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam asked donors attending the conference for humanitarian assistance to help the Lebanese authorities implement a plan to overcome the Syrian refugee crisis.

The PM's call for assistance to the Lebanese government is only 37 percent of the pledges that Lebanon is expecting to receive at the conference.

The remaining 63 percent of the $2.1 billion in assistance that the country is asking for will cover humanitarian cases such as aid to Lebanon's most vulnerable communities and the refugees.

Lebanon is hosting around 1.5 million refugees. The country is already suffering from infrastructure-related problems and political issues, Salam said.

The total amount of pledges almost equals the combined total of $3.9 billion promised at the two previous conferences.

The European Union pledged nearly 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) on Tuesday while other major pledges came from the United States which offered $507 million and Kuwait with $500 million.

The United Nations has launched an appeal for $8.4 billion in 2015 to fund its humanitarian operations in Syria, with $5.5 billion intended for Syrian refugees and $2.9 billion for people inside the war-ravaged country.

Aid agencies have warned that failure to raise the required funds will force them to halt or downsize their humanitarian operations for more than 12 million Syrians, or half of the population.

H.K.

M.T.