Caretaker Minister of Social Affairs, Pierre Bou Assi, held a press conference on Tuesday in which he deplored the Free Patriotic Movement's attack against the Ministry of Social Affairs' way of handling the Syrian refugee dossier in Lebanon.
The Minister echoed during a press conference he held today, discontent at "the noisy campaign" against his ministry. "We have led the electoral battle without verbal escalation against anyone," he added.
The Minister went on to highlight the fact that toward the beginning of the influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanese territories, the Lebanese Forces were not part of the government, at the time that the Free Patriotic Movement was represented by ten ministers.
"What has the FPM done to prevent the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon from reaching 1.5 million?" he wondered.
Referring to another FPM campaign against the ministry during Brussels conference, Bou Assi reminded that Lebanon had not been officially informed about the content of the joint communiqué issued by the United Nations and the European Union.
"Only Minister Gebran Bassil was informed about the content of the communiqué," he said, accusing Bassil of remaining silent about the content "to use it at later stages against the Lebanese Forces."
Despite reiterating his tasks as the "Lebanese" Minister of Social Affairs and not that of "Syria", the Minister affirmed that he still had a moral and humanitarian responsibility to preserve the dignity of every man on Lebanese territory.
"The international community has not declared safe zones in Syria, but these areas in Syria are wider than Lebanon, and we need to work for the refugees' return," he said.
Bou Assi also asserted that Syrian law number 10 would prevent refugees from returning to Syria. "We must refer to the United Nations to annul this law," he added.
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