Syrian Ambassador: Lebanon Must Look for Solutions for Displaced Syrians

Syria's ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali said he acknowledges the burden on Lebanon as the result of displaced Syrians fleeing the war ravaging their country, but he questioned the “lack of Lebanese government initiatives to find solutions,” the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Ali admitted that Lebanon is bearing “the burden of displaced Syrians,” but he wondered about the reasons keeping the Lebanese “government from taking initiatives to find solutions” for the crisis, he said.

The ambassador spoke during a lecture at the Center for Palestinian Studies titled The Syrian Crisis, Areas of Reducing Tension - Motives and Challenges.

Whether there is cooperation between the Lebanese and Syrian governments in that regard, he said: “The Lebanese state is a sister country, we have minimal coordination. The answer to this question is with the Lebanese government, because our enemy is one, Israel and terrorism.”

He reiterated that there is coordination with the Lebanese state "even if there are some mistakes from the Syrians, we call for more coordination between the institutions of the two countries for the interest of both peoples, and families deployed on the common border."

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said more than six million Syrians have fled their country since its devastating war broke out in 2011.

Of those, Lebanon is hosting more than 1.5 million Syrians, roughly a quarter of its current population of four million.

The influx of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has stretched the country's economic resources.

In the education system, classrooms were overcrowded with the number of students more than doubling in six years to accommodate Syrian pupils.

Lebanon, whose infrastructure was devastated during a 15-year war that ended in 1990, is struggling with endemic corruption and a public debt that represents 140 percent of its GDP.