It must be said that the Lebanese have gotten their fingers burnt many times before. Present in their country since 1948, Palestinian refugees are clearly no longer a priority for the international community. Not even for the Lebanese State, which has become accustomed to suffering the repercussions of the many crises rocking the Middle East since that time: the endemic Arab-Israeli wars, the Camp David peace accords, the Lebanese war set off by armed Palestinians, the two Gulf Wars, the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, the break-up of Iraq first followed by Syria, the jolts of the Arab Spring… not to mention the multiple terrorist attacks that have shaken the country of the cedars. All of that happening to the backdrop of economic crisis, unemployment and political immobilism.

The new Iranian-Saudi crisis that has hit at the heart of Lebanese official institutions risks pushing the thorny issue of displaced Syrians to the background: more than a million mostly destitute people to manage on a daily basis, with the infrastructure of an already overstretched country hardly keeping up. International aid may well pour in, but it will not be able to meet all their needs while a growing number of Lebanese are living in precarious conditions.

Accommodating more than a million people in an already overburdened country is unthinkable, and planning their return at this stage would be an impossible feat. In short, this is the squaring of the circle with not enough people to round off the angles.