March 14 Delegation Tours Wadi Khaled, Warns against Harassing Residents for Sheltering Syrian Refugees

The March 14-led opposition general-secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid called on Saturday the cabinet to offer help to the Syrian refugees and warned the authorities against harassing residents of Wadi Khaled for offering them shelter.

“We demand (the Lebanese authorities) to provide the Syrian refugees with a secure shelter and crucial human services,” Soaid said during a press conference.

A March 14 delegation toured the area of Wadi Khaled in northern Lebanon in a show of support for Syrian refugees who have escaped President Bashar Assad regime’s brutal crackdown.

“We are here to express our support… We back the Arab spring and the Syrian (people) revolution,” Soaid said.

He added: “No one can prevent the residents of Wadi Khaled and the neighboring areas from welcoming the Syrian refugees.”

The delegation first headed from Beirut to the coastal town of Batroun and then to the northern port city of Tripoli where it held closed-door talks with leaders of the Mustaqbal movement in the North.

The delegation includes politicians, party officials and journalists.

“The aim of our visit is to send a message of peace and announce our solidarity with the Arab revolutions and in particular the Syrian revolution,” Soaid said after the meeting held at the Mustaqbal offices in Tripoli before heading to Wadi Khaled.

“We demand security for the refugees,” he said, adding that “the Lebanese government should assume its responsibility towards what’s going on the Lebanese-Syrian border.”

Some 5,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Lebanon since the revolt in Syria erupted mid-March but many say they now live in fear of being hunted down by Assad's Lebanese allies.