Roundup: Lebanon continues to take in repercussions of Syrian crisis

The four-year Syrian crisis and its repercussions have deeply affected the surrounding countries on the economic, social and security levels, and Lebanon was one of the most affected countries, analysts say.

As Syrian crisis enters its fifth year, its effect on Lebanon's security situation is rising, particularly with fundamentalist gunmen from the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State (IS) entrenched on the eastern borders of Lebanon.

The Lebanese army has been confronting these gunmen since last August when they overran the eastern border town of Arsal managed to abduct at least 35 soldiers and policemen before withdrawing to Syria.

Al-Nusra executed four soldiers while the IS beheaded another one, and both groups are threatening to kill other abducted soldiers unless the Lebanese authorities release a number of their fellowmen held in Lebanese jails.

On the security level, retired army Brigadier General Amine Hoteit told Xinhua that "given the area of the military operations, we can realize that the two countries are intertwined due to the historical and geographical relations, and the concept of global security."

"The long Syrian-Lebanese borders logically made the repercussions of the Syrian crisis visibly weigh on Lebanon from all aspects," he said.

"The repercussions of the crisis on the political level deepened the division among the Lebanese parties and made them unable to handle the daily files," Hoteit said, adding that "the failure of the parliament to elect a new president came as the former Syrian help on this issue is not available anymore."

"Lebanon would remain vulnerable to threats and dangers as long as the crisis in Syria continues," he said.

However, he stressed that "the Lebanese army and security agencies are hardly working on confronting the danger of terrorism by launching preemptive strikes on possible fundamentalist locations on the borders and inside the country."

On the economic level, Kamal Hamdan, a renowned economist, told Xinhua that the most visible aspect is that Lebanon holds more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees, which represents around 30 percent of the Lebanese population and 30 percent of the working force.

Hamdan pointed out that "the influx of the Syrian refugees reached its peak in two years which is an unprecedented case in the world, and it is translated into many other issues."

The World Bank estimated that Lebanon had a loss of 7.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 because of the Syrian refugees, of which 2.5 billion dollars are direct costs on the country's public expenditure.

Hamdan said that most of the needs of the Syrian refugees are provided by international donors and particularly the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees. "For three years, it has spent about one billion dollars in food aid alone to the refugees."

Meanwhile, the low-cost labor forces among the Syrian refugees replaced the Lebanese labors, which pushed between 155,000 and 200,000 Lebanese to the poverty level, according to official statistics.

Hamdan warned that "the Lebanese have not yet taken into deep consideration the future of the Syrians displacement and the facts that some of them could not return to their homes because of the destruction, and that is a very serious issue to consider." Endit