Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi during a meeting in the Makassed Islamic Association in Beirut. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi announced Friday a security plan for Beirut and its suburbs, particularly the airport road, and insisted that an EU billion-dollar aid package to Lebanon is “unconditional and intended to support Lebanese citizens and security agencies,” the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported. The NNA added that Mawlawi went on to specifically point out that donation has not been offered to Lebanon “would keep Syrian refugees in the country.”
An apparent uptick in crime coupled with multiple reports of assaults and attempted robberies on the airport road in recent weeks prompted caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi to announce on April 24 a new security plan for Beirut, including “more patrols on the airport road.” Several social media users had reported that rocks were thrown at their cars in an attempt to stop them and potentially rob them on the airport road.
Mawlawi was not available to respond to L'Orient Today's request for comment about the details of this security plan at the time of publication of this article.
Speaking during a gathering at the Association of Graduates of Makassed Islamic Schools in Beirut Friday, Mawlawi said that the security situation in Lebanon is challenging due to the financial crisis that Lebanon is in, noting that “the absence of new recruits and expertise within Lebanon's security forces for nearly five years, coupled with the state's financial constraints” is what caused the deterioration in the security situation.
Lebanon is in its fifth year of an unprecedented economic crisis, which has pushed more than half of the population below the poverty line.
Mawlawi stated that the Interior Ministry requested the deployment of an additional 800 personnel from the security forces, expressing hope for "voluntary participation from all segments of Lebanese society."
Billion-dollar EU aid offer ‘not conditioned upon the Syrian presence in Lebanon’
On the matter of European Union's aid, Minister Mawlawi clarified that "rumors of a one billion euro donation being conditional upon the Syrian presence in Lebanon are false."
He affirmed that "EU officials assured Lebanon that any assistance provided would be unconditional and intended to support Lebanese citizens and security agencies."
Earlier in May, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen announced $1 billion in aid for Lebanon during a visit to the country and urged it to tackle illegal migration to the bloc.
Many political groups in Lebanon saw this aid package as a conditional package by the EU to incentivize Lebanon to keep Syrian refugees in Lebanon and curb their migration to Europe.
Around 1.5 million Syrians live in Lebanon, making it the country with the highest refugee population per capita in the world. Some 800,000 of these Syrian nationals are registered with the UN. The conflict that broke out in Syria in 2011 continues today, with more than 4,000 civilians and combatants killed in the country in 2023, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Mawlawi said that it is no longer “in Lebanon’s capacity to host this many Syrian refugees, especially amid all the challenges facing the country.”
Lebanese politicians from all sides regularly call for the immediate repatriation of Syrian refugees, whom they blame for Lebanon's economic crisis. They assert that the security conditions allow for such a return, while the UN and other rights groups warn that this is not the case.