Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces have begun ethnically cleansing Sunnis and deliberately pushing refugees across the border into Lebanon, the Lebanese caretaker minister for social affairs said on 17 June.Wael Abu Faour said that during the 27-month-old conflict Syrian forces had committed what was “tantamount to ethnic cleansing next to the Syrian-Lebanese border.” “(Assad) is trying to displace all the Sunnis to Lebanon and this is why I expect to have more displaced people,” he said. “What began was a wave of people fleeing from violence to Lebanon, but what is happening now is a completely different matter. What is happening now is organised displacement of the Syrian people — organized based on sectarian and political motives,” said Abu Faour.He made his comments after meeting UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, who said that refugees in Lebanon and their local hosts directly needed support from world powers.
LEBANON MINISTER ACCUSES SYRIA OF ‘ETHNIC CLEANSING’ OF SUNNIS
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces have begun ethnically cleansing Sunnis and deliberately pushing refugees across the border into Lebanon, the Lebanese caretaker minister for social affairs said on 17
