Ibrahim Kanaan seeks to bar Syrian refugees in Lebanon from accessing aid locally

Deputy Ibrahim Kanaan, head of the parliamentary finance committee, told L'Orient-Le Jour on Thursday that he intends to submit a proposal today aimed at prohibiting Lebanese banks and financial institutions from distributing aid provided by local and international organizations to Syrian refugees and migrants in Lebanon. The legislation seeks to compel refugees to return to Syria to access their funds, potentially expediting their repatriation — particularly those who fled Bashar al-Assad's regime after the Syrian Civil War erupted in 2011. Assad was ousted from power on Dec. 8 by an Islamist rebel coalition led by the now-dissolved Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).Kanaan, who left the Free Patriotic Movement last year, defended his proposal in an interview with local TV channel, MTV, on Wednesday night. "We are not depriving them of aid. If...