Lebanese President Emile Lahoud rejected an offer from unidentified international parties of $20 billion in return for Lebanon agreeing to give Palestinian refugees in the country permanent status, the press reported on Tuesday.
“International parties proposed to us a price of 20 billion dollars for the definitive settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon,” Lahoud was quoted in the An-Nahar newspaper as saying. “We rejected that offer, knowing that it is a sum equivalent to our public debt and represents one of the principal sources of pressure on us,” he said.
Certain Lebanese politicians are open to entertaining such a project, even though they publicly speak out against it, the President added.
Some 367,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, according to UN statistics, accounting for one-tenth of the Palestinians throughout the Arab world. Most of them live in some 12 camps in the southern part of the country, where they are deprived of most rights accorded to Lebanese citizens. Lahoud said that the unanimous refusal of permanent residence, as much by the Lebanese as by the Palestinians themselves is a factor that definitively ought to be taken into account. The newspaper said that Lahoud considers that Lebanon's firmness on this matter will have positive implications for both the Lebanese and the Palestinians. Bureau Report