Lebanese MP accuses his government of supplying weapons to Assad

A member of Lebanon’s Parliament accused his government of supplying explosives to the Syrian regime, with the complete knowledge of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).

Lebanon’s Future bloc MP Khaled Daher told the country’s national news agency that incidents like this have been taking place since May 2012.
“About two days ago, two trucks loaded with dozens of tons of explosives crossed the Masnaa Lebanese-Syrian border crossing, and this has been happening since May 2012,” the National News Agency quoted Daher as saying in a press conference on Saturday.

“The problem is that it is happening with the knowledge of the LAF and army intelligence, as if it were a simple matter,” he added.

The opposition parliamentarian revealed documents sent to the LAF command backing his statements.

Daher also said that “the dissociation policy announced by Bashar al-Assad’s government in Lebanon is a blatant lie which nobody believes.”

The MP then went on to demand the immediate resignation of the Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati “because he is covering up for all the killings of our innocent youths.”

Syrian refugees in Lebanon

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees revealed on Saturday that at least 283,000 refugees have fled Syria to Lebanon and are currently receiving aid from the Lebanese cabinet, the U.N. and other non-governmental organizations.

“185,000 refugees have been registered so far while 98,000 are waiting to be added to the list soon,” the UNHCR detailed in its weekly report on the situation of Syrians in Lebanon.

It explained: “Syrians are arriving at a steady rate and we were able to register more than 10,000 person this week”.

The statement noted that refugees arriving to Lebanon mainly come from the cities of Aleppo, Homs, Idlib and Damascus of the war-torn country.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres had said last week that the number of people fleeing fighting in Syria could reach 1.1 million by June.

The international community needed to support a $1 billion plan, pushed by his and other international groups, to address the needs of those displaced by the Syrian conflict, he said.

The humanitarian situation in Syria is "the most dramatic crisis we are facing today," he said, adding developed nations, including those in Europe, needed to accept more refugees, as Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon have done.