The European Parliament voted today on a Resolution on Lebanon that tackled many aspects of the crisis in the country, including the Presidential Vacuum, Sanctions against corrupt Lebanese ruling party figures, Support for the investigation into the Beirut Port Explosion, and the topic of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon.

The original draft, proposed by our partners in the European People’s Party (EPP), included all the points and priorities that the Kataeb, as a partner of the EPP, voiced for many years during its participation with our European partners. However, while discussing the Resolution with other groups in the European Parliament (EP) - including the Greens, Leftists, Communists, and Renew Europe, and in the absence of the Identity and Democracy Group (ID), many points were amended in order to ensure the support of all the groups for this Resolution.

While the Kataeb Party strongly supports the articles in the Resolution that focus on those who contributed to the deteriorating situation in Lebanon. We highly condemn the article on the Syrian refugees, which failed to draw out a necessary roadmap curtailing their return to Syria, noting that it is a crucial point for Lebanon's stability and existence. 

The Kataeb Party voiced its position on the presence of over 1.5 million Syrian refugees within Lebanon's territory during all its encounters with foreign partners, including the EPP, and called for their expedited return to Syria while asking the international community to exert pressure on the Bashar al-Assad regime to facilitate the social and political conditions for their return while incentivizing the refugees via UN Agencies to return to their homeland. 

The party will continue challenging the policy mentioned in Article 13 of the Resolution and advocate for the proper approach towards the question of the Syrian Refugees, which has been agreed upon by the vast majority of the Lebanese people.

On this occasion, we would like to thank our partners in the EPP for the continuous support they have provided the Lebanese people through multiple milestones, in particular the October 2019 revolution, the 2020 August 4th port explosion, the economic and social crises plaguing the nation since 2019, and their steadfast countering of Hezbollah's attempts to overtake Lebanese sovereignty.