How far can Lebanon push its luck with the US on Russia? After all, Washington has called the shots on defence for decades.
Lebanese President Michael Aoun landed in Moscow scarcely three days after United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lambasted Hezbollah and showered veiled threats on the group’s political allies.
Indeed, last summer, Russia opened three cultural centers in Lebanon. The soft move was, of course, a telltale sign of the engagement to unfold. Perhaps the most potent liaison between Beirut and Moscow is their resolve at ensuring Syrian refugees return home. The European Union , however, has refused to budge on the issue until Assad releases thousands believed to be under forced detention inside Syrian prisons . on the condition of anonymity, said that nothing has materialised on that front precisely because while Russia made refugee return contingent on reconstruction, Europe has made it a matter of political transition and human rights.
Alain Aoun, an MP from President Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, said that while politicians in Lebanon, which is currently home to 1.5 million Syrians, naturally agree with the Russians that the return of refugees should not be contingent on political mutations, it also does not want the return to depend on reconstruction funds.
Russia, of course, complements Hezbollah’s political friends who are aligned with the group’s Syrian allies. For politicians like Saad Hariri who cannot directly deal with Assad, but are well aware of the importance of keeping some form of communication with a historically powerful neighbor, Russia opens a back channel.
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