The news—the expected inflow of refugees spread by politicians close to Damascus and not the opposite camp—does not serve, in any case, the interest of Syrian refugees coming to Lebanon, because it fuels the fears of the Lebanese of a new wave of refugees that the small country cannot accommodate at any level, whether in terms of living conditions, finance or security.

Some politicians manipulate the refugee card for political pressure. They accuse others of not wanting to send them back to their country, and then promote figures of new refugees as a means of fearmongering to push the other toward political options they may not want.

They take the refugee card out of its humanitarian context to the political, and instead of empathizing with refugees, who are not to blame, promote a state of hostility that balloons to the point of revenge and intimidation. And with it the hostility between the two peoples deepens.

Politicians should stop exploiting the issue of refugees to personal ends and for personal interests, upstaging one another and continuing to try to impose duties of obedience and loyalty. Leave the issue to those directly concerned to be dealt with within the legal and official frameworks adopted in similar cases. The Lebanese State, through a meeting of the Council of Ministers, should set its policy and convey it to the world in a unified letter and project to exert pressure effectively, instead of appearing divided internally, in a way that neither the State nor refugees-victims benefit.