Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. (Illustration by Jaimee Lee Haddad/L'Orient Today)
This visit’s agenda is clear: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was received Wednesday in Baabda Presidential Palace by his Lebanese counterpart, President Joseph Aoun, and Thursday by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, is in Lebanon to discuss the Palestinian camps, the rights of refugees and, above all, their disarmament.Officially, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in the region (UNRWA) recognizes and provides services to 12 camps spread throughout Lebanon. While the Lebanese Army is prohibited from entering them under an agreement signed in 1969, it controls access to these overcrowded areas, with camps' security being ensured by different Palestinian factions. Read more on the agreement Palestinian armed presence in Lebanon: What does the Cairo agreement say? Some of these factions remain heavily armed,...
This visit’s agenda is clear: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was received Wednesday in Baabda Presidential Palace by his Lebanese counterpart, President Joseph Aoun, and Thursday by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, is in Lebanon to discuss the Palestinian camps, the rights of refugees and, above all, their disarmament.Officially, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in the region (UNRWA) recognizes and provides services to 12 camps spread throughout Lebanon. While the Lebanese Army is prohibited from entering them under an agreement signed in 1969, it controls access to these overcrowded areas, with camps' security being ensured by different Palestinian factions. Read more on the agreement Palestinian armed presence in Lebanon: What does the Cairo agreement say? Some of these factions remain heavily...