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Syrian state television reported that about 1,200 refugees were
expected to cross back into the country from Lebanon on Saturday
before returning to their homes.
Lebanon's security chief Abbas Ibrahim said "the coming period
will witness the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees
from Lebanon" in comments reported by Hezbollah's al-Manar
television channel.
State television in Syria and the private al-Jadeed channel in
Lebanon showed buses full of refugees at the crossing point on
the frontier. It is the latest in a series of recent returns
arranged by the two countries.
Lebanon hosts more than a million Syrian refugees, more than a
quarter of its population, and leading Lebanese politicians have
said many of them should go home as Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad has restored his rule across much of the country.
This week a senior official from Assad's ally Russia was in
Beirut to discuss a plan for mass returns of refugees and its
defense ministry said over 1.7 million would be able to return
to Syria from abroad in the near future. [nL5N1UK5I4]
The United Nations says that conditions for returns to Syria are
not yet fulfilled, more than seven years into a conflict that
has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven more than
half the pre-war population from their homes.
(Reporting By Angus McDowall, Editing by William Maclean)
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