BEIRUT, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The media office of Lebanese State Minister of the Displaced Saleh Gharib said on Monday that he will visit Syria to discuss the issue of the secure return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.
The minister will meet with Syrian Administration and Environment Minister Hussein Makhlouf, said a report by Elnashra, an online independent newspaper.
The Lebanese ministry said that it will be the first visit for the minister to visit Syria.
It added that Makhlouf will hold a press conference in Syria following his meeting with Gharib.
Opening a direct dialogue with Syria on the return of refugees has been a controversial issue in Lebanon.
Some political parties in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, Amal movement, and Free Patriotic Movement, have been pushing the government into normalizing ties with Syria to solve the issue of refugees and their safe return to Syria. However, Prime Minister Saad Hariri has on many occasions voiced his objections to opening a direct dialogue with Syria on this issue.
More than one million Syrian refugees are registered with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, while the government estimates the true number of Syrians in the country at 1.5 million.
Hariri has been handling the refugee crisis on the basis of a strategy drafted by Russia, after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump last year in Helsinki, capital of Finland.
