Jordan King Voices Fear over Situation in Lebanon
Jordanian King Abdullah II expressed fear on Saturday over the situation in Lebanon, deeming that it's the most affected by the ongoing conflict in neighboring country Syria.
“Our hearts are with Lebanon as it is affected the most by the Syrian crisis in light of the demographic structure,” the king said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.
He pointed out that Lebanon's composition “cannot bear the intervention by any side in the Syrian conflict,” considering that it would have negative consequences on all of Lebanon.
Hizbullah forces are openly fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops despite what had been an official Lebanese policy of "dissociation" from the conflict.
The group is believed to have played a key role in the army's recapture of Yabrud on Sunday, which lies close to the Lebanese border.
The fall of the town and subsequent operations nearby to seal off the border will sever rebel supply lines that ran across it.
The town's capture came after a lengthy regime operation in the surrounding Qalamun region last year, during which it captured a string of nearby towns and began shelling Yabrud.
More than three years into the Syrian civil war that has killed more than 146,000 people, Jordan has taken in some 584,000 Syrian refugees and there are some 226,000 in Iraq, according to U.N. figures, with nearly one million Syrians in tiny Lebanon alone.
The country host nearly a million refugees and has seen tensions rise between Sunni citizens that largely back the Syrian revolt and Shiites, including Hizbullah, who support the regime.
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