BEIRUT - (Xinhua) The Minister of the Displaced in the Lebanese caretaker government, Issam Sharafeddine, said today (Friday) that there are no obstacles to Lebanon's implementation of its plan to return the displaced Syrians to their homeland in a safe and dignified manner.

In a statement to reporters after his meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, Sharaf El-Din indicated that "Lebanon did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and therefore there is nothing preventing the implementation of the process of deporting the displaced Syrians in a safe and dignified manner between us and the concerned country, that is, Syria."

The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1976 Protocol affirm that refugees should not be returned to a country where they would face serious threats to their life or freedom.

Sharafeddine stressed the need for the displaced Syrians in Lebanon to return to their homeland, regardless of the position of the United Nations and donor countries in this regard.

He added that the Syrian Minister of Local Administration and Environment, Hussein Makhlouf, informed him that there are 480 vacant shelters in Syria, ready to accommodate about 200,000 displaced people, and that, in addition, the Syrian state is ready to build other shelters with their supplies if necessary.

He referred to an agreement between the Russian Federation and Syria, through which Moscow will provide the displaced with medical care and everything related to food and infrastructure to establish schools, which will compensate for the aid of the UNHCR.

He believed that Lebanon should start implementing the return plan as soon as possible, regardless of the position of the UNHCR and the position of donor countries.

The Lebanese Minister of the Displaced had previously presented the proposal of the Lebanese plan to the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Beirut, which rejected the plan on the pretext that Syria is not safe amidst Lebanon's insistence on implementing its plan.

Last July, Sharaf Al-Din announced a draft Lebanese plan for the return of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon to their country, providing for the return of 15,000 displaced persons per month, in proportion to the absorptive capacity of the Syrian state.

On June 20, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the international community to "cooperate with Lebanon to return the displaced Syrians to their country, otherwise Lebanon will have a position that is not desirable for Western countries, which is working to remove the Syrians from Lebanon by legal means through the application of laws." Firmly Lebanese.

According to government estimates, about 1.5 million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon, who pose social, economic, health and security pressures at a time when the country is suffering from a severe economic and financial crisis, which the World Bank classified as one of the three worst crises in the world since the middle of the last century.