Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement, warns that tensions in Middle East could spark a refugee crisis in Europe
into a “belt of fire,” warns Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement, one of the most powerful parties in the Lebanese parliament. A Maronite Christian who has served as Lebanon’s foreign minister and energy minister, he is the son-in-law of Michel Aoun, the country’s president until his term ended last year.
Mr. Bassil spoke to The Globe and Mail from his home high in the northern Lebanese mountains, next to a ski resort and overlooking a development of luxury villas.It’s a stronghold of exposed wood and thick timber beams that sits a world apart from the difficult circumstances for many in the country, not least roughly 1.5 million Syrian refugees, many of whom arrived after the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011. Roughly 90 per cent of them live in what the United Nations calls extreme poverty.
Lebanon’s political establishment has spoken out against the prospect of escalation with Israel, with caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati saying this week that, “it’s of no one’s interest to open a front from southern Lebanon because the Lebanese are unable to bear the repercussions of a new war.”
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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