Gen. Bisari visited Syria to discuss the refugee issue

Acting Director General of Public Security, Major General Elias Al-Bisari, visited Damascus last week and discussed with Syrian officials issues related to Syrian displacement in general and the new waves in particular.

Bisari reportedly took the initiative after caretaker Foreign Minister Abdullah Bu Habib’s reluctance to visit Syria and discuss the file, preferring to spend his vacation in the United States.

During his most recent trip to New York  Bou Habib sounded very pessimistic about the Syrian refugees issue . He said that both the west and Damascus are rejecting the return of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to the war-torn country.

“During my presence in New York, I met with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Syria’s envoy to the U.N. Bassam Sabbagh, who will become deputy foreign minister, and I agreed with the minister that I will visit Damascus after my return from the United States,” Bou Habib told the al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Asked about the outcome of his meetings in New York, Bou Habib said: “The U.N. is still considering the situation in Syria to be unsafe and it is paying them (refugees) money where they are. If they return and the U.N. pays them in Syria, they will be able to rebuild their homes and villages, but the international stance is opposed to the refugee return and they will not pay them if they return, so the refugees prefer to stay where they are.”

Bou Habib has been described by analysts as a flip-flopper because he is so reluctant to make decisions that may not be in Hezbollah’s interest. The case of Russian invasion of Ukraine is a good example , after condemning the invasion on February 24 , 2022 , Lebanon abstained on April 8, 2022 from voting on the United Nations General Assembly resolution to expel Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, simply because Hezbollah is closely aligned with Russia .

A political analyst was quoted as saying: “While it is customary to characterize Hezbollah as a ‘state within a state,’ it is more accurate now to define it as a ‘state within a non-state.’”