FPM Marks Syrian Withdrawal Anniversary: Bassil Warns of a New Occupation, Condemns Government’s Refugee Plan as a Scandal, and Urges Salam to Scrap It



The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) organized a mass mobilization to mark the 20th anniversary of the Syrian military withdrawal. Along with a speech by FPM leader MP Gebran Bassil, speeches were delivered by ‘NLP Tigers’, former Lebanese Forces deputy lawyer Elie Aswad, FPM VP for relations with external parties Naji Hayek, and activist Walid Abi Nader.

Bassil stressed that the FPM’s demand is clear and firm: The immediate and unconditional return of all displaced Syrians. “Just as we freed Lebanon once from the Syrian occupation, we will free it again from this disguised humanitarian occupation”, he said.

Bassil stressed that Lebanon was facing a new form of occupation, and that resisting it required demanding its withdrawal. “Lebanon is under international guardianship through the UNHCR, which decides who returns and who stays. This is a clear violation of our national sovereignty and independence, and we must confront it by rejecting this guardianship,” he explained.

He pointed out that the government, through the Minister of Social Affairs and Ministerial committee on Syrian displaced people, has so far accepted the UNHCR’s proposal regarding the concept of conditional voluntary return; something he described as a national humiliation, serving foreign interests and agendas. He stressed that this path, which threatens Lebanon’s identity, must be confronted decisively if the government insists on pursuing it.

Regarding the government's actions on this issue, Bassil explained that Lebanon was facing a real existential threat, while the government continued to speak of voluntary return and was committing a new crime against Lebanon.
“Two days ago, the Prime Minister promised us a comprehensive plan for the refugee crisis to be presented within two months, but the foundation of this plan is already a scandal in the making, and we are asking him to stop it”, he said
“Mr. Prime Minister, out of our deep care for you and for Lebanon, we call on you to scrap this plan before it ever comes to life!” he added. "Mr. Prime Minister, out of our deep care for you and for Lebanon, we urge you to abandon this plan before it ever sees the light of day". He added.

“The issue came up in remarks by the Minister of Social Affairs, who oversees the refugee file, and was presented to the Ministerial committee on Syrian displaced people, where it received preliminary approval — and this is where the disaster lies. Why? The UNHCR conducted a survey in February 2025 among Syrian refugees, asking them about their willingness to return voluntarily, but only if basic services are available in Syria. Meaning, if those services are lacking, there will be no voluntary return.
To verify or explore the availability of these services, short visits to Syria are organized under the slogan of ‘freedom of choice’: a move that bypasses Lebanese sovereignty by giving the displaced the individual right to decide, without any official or collective organization that considers Lebanon’s national interest. Instead, the focus is solely on the displaced’s personal assessment of whether health care, education, jobs, electricity, water, and other essential services are available. Despite all this, only 24% of displaced Syrians expressed a desire to return voluntarily: about 400,000 people! Are we really talking about the return of just 24%? And is this return temporary or permanent? Will it take one year or ten years? What will happen to the 76% who clearly said they did not want to go back? Will the state just stand by and watch this expanding demographic reality? Most refugees have no intention of returning.

Bassil explained that displaced Syrians in Lebanon receive all the healthcare, education, and social services they need, provided by the UNHCR and its partner organizations. Those services were largely unavailable in many Syrian areas. This raises serious doubts about whether these ‘short visits’ are actually intended to normalize the refugee situation and entrench their presence in Lebanon as a permanent reality. Many of the 24% who initially agreed to return could come back to Lebanon once they see the actual situation in Syria, changing their minds since the final decision is left entirely up to them.

“The UNHCR claims that around 350,000 Syrian refugees returned to Syria in November 2024 as a result of the Israeli war. What happened to them after the ceasefire? Did they come back to Lebanon? If they didn’t, why isn’t this experience being used to facilitate the return of the remaining refugees while the opportunity is still fresh? And if they did come back to Lebanon, it reinforces our belief that most of them did not leave Syria for security reasons but rather for economic ones. Most importantly, has the UNHCR removed their names from its databases? And has it provided the Lebanese government with a list of their names so that General Security can prevent them from re-entering the country?” he added.

“Do you know that there has recently been a noticeable and increasing illegal entry of Syrian men, without their women and children, at the border? And there is no war in Syria! In this case, we are not talking about the 40,000 to 50,000 Alawites who fled from the Syrian coast, but rather about men from other regions. What is the purpose of this sudden new influx?”, he questioned.

Bassil reminded that April 9th marked the first anniversary of the killing of the Lebanese Forces official in Jbeil, Pascal Sleiman. “They demanded the previous regime to hand over the killers. Today, the new regime is their friend, even their ally. Why haven’t we heard their voices or their demands? For this reason, we, in the FPM, are calling on the Syrian regime to hand over the killers of Pascal Sleiman”, he declared.

Bassil outlined the legal and practical foundations that should guide the return of the refugees:

1- Lebanon’s policy on displaced people and migration should be based on sovereignty, national law, and the constitution, protecting the Lebanese identity and national territories. Therefore, voluntary return is not practical since the principle of non-refoulement only applies when there is a threat to life, a condition no longer valid after the fall of the Assad regime.

2- Return is a right and duty, not a privilege determined by the United Nations, but by national institutions and enforced by ‘national security’. The ‘feelings’ of the displaced should not define the return policy. Therefore, the temporary status of displaced people should not be renewed, camps and settlements should be removed, and the UN Refugee Agency should not be allowed to fund the stay of the displaced, let alone fund the entry of new illegal arrivals.

3- The state should submit an official request to the IMF, the World Bank, and all international institutions to compensate Lebanon, with a minimum amount of $50 billion, as officially estimated by them. This compensation should be in the form of grants, not loans.

Bassil emphasized that the slogan ‘Occupiers disguised as displaced people’ is not a racist stance against the Syrian people, who are our brothers and neighbors. Rather, its purpose is to point out the conspiracy that displaced them and decided to settle them in Lebanon, a country that is not theirs. This same conspiracy impoverished the Lebanese, stole their money, and made them ready to emigrate and sell their land, while another people is ready to take their place.

“In this sense, Syrians become occupiers disguised as displaced people. When the Lebanese people, in all their sects, do not want them, they become occupiers. When the international community and countries force their stay despite the will of our people, they become occupiers. When most of them are unwilling to return and our people want them to leave, they are occupiers. And when they tell us their stay in Lebanon is necessary for humanitarian reasons, even though the regime they fled from has fallen, their presence is no longer necessary”, he said.

“That’s why it’s our right to say, 'occupiers disguised as displaced people' and this is not racism. It’s not racism when we demand the return of people to their land. Racism is when we remain silent about their displacement and turn a blind eye to attempts to settle them. Racism is when you stand against your own people to please the outside world and implement its agendas. Racism is when you see a displaced person taking the place of your fellow citizen, who is forced to leave his land broken, while you, in a position of responsibility, watch and remain silent. "We refuse to stand idly by as Lebanon collapses, its people are driven to emigrate, and another people are brought in to replace them."

“If you want to label it racism, go ahead. We call it patriotism. If you want to call our support for our people racism, so be it. If you want to call our dedication to preserving the diversity of Syria and Lebanon racism, call it what you will. If you want to call our efforts to prevent the division of Syria and Lebanon racism, then so be it. If you want to call our struggle to keep the Syrian people in Syria and the Lebanese people in Lebanon racism, go ahead, call it that. We call it a struggle for freedom, sovereignty, and independence, and we are proud to fight it again”, he declared.

“We are the ones who own this cause. The one who started the Liberation War was Prime Minister General Michel Aoun. He was forcibly removed from his position as the legitimate authority in Lebanon by the occupation, overthrown from abroad with the betrayal of everyone inside. That’s why he went into exile alone, while the others all participated in the conspiracy and in the power, except for Brigadier General Raymond Eddeh, the 'man of integrity,' who left voluntarily, and Danny Chamoun, the 'tiger,' who was killed treacherously”, he added.

“We were the ones who resisted from the start, before the others gradually joined us. These are defining moments in the history of the Free Patriotic Movement, embodying its values, its struggle, and its identity. They are a legacy for the youth — a testament to who we are and what we stand for. These dates carry profound meaning and crucial lessons. Remember them well."
- March 14, 1989: The Liberation War.
- October 13, 1990: The consolidation of the Syrian occupation.
- August 7, 2001: The imprisonment of those demanding sovereignty.
- February 14, 2005: The assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
- March 14, 2005: The largest popular gathering to liberate Lebanon.
- April 26, 2005: The withdrawal of the Syrian army.
- May 7, 2005: The return of the Liberation Movement’s leader.

“Seven crucial dates in the life of our nation that those born after 1990 did not experience in their political consciousness. That’s why we gather today, to remember and to remind, to learn and to teach about the FPM so that no one distorts its history”.

“We’ve always said that we are against Syria when it's in Lebanon, and we are with Syria when it's outside Lebanon. Meanwhile, others supported Syria while it was in Lebanon, only to turn against it once it left. When everyone bowed to the Syrians at the Anjar palace, we stood tall from the heart of the prison. While they silenced themselves with a gesture, we raised our voices even louder, with more freedom, fueled by the very beatings we endured.”

Bassil went on to explain that while everyone else submitted and got involved in Syrian elections and governments, the FPM stood firm and shouted for ‘freedom, sovereignty, and independence’. He said that the ‘Aounists’ had been ridiculed at the time, held onto a dream and succeeded in liberating their land. He emphasized that their struggle continued, from war to peace, from the battle for legitimacy against the militias to the battle for the state against the mafias. He stated that they had never retreated, never changed, and never altered their direction.
“We want the best relations with Syria as long as Syrians are in Syria and Lebanese people are in Lebanon. But we have never abandoned our history”, he stated.

Bassil added that others, having forgotten their own history, followed the FPM in demanding Syria’s departure, and now seek to outbid them and steal their slogan, just as they had have stolen the Lebanese people's money through decades of their corruption since 1990. He made it clear that they would not allow their struggle to be stolen. He pointed out that these people had stolen the state with Syria's help when it was here, and then they betrayed Syria when it left, conspiring against it in 2011. He added that they returned, collaborating again, and conspired against Lebanon by allowing the chaotic influx of Syrian refugees.

He continued, saying that they refused to control the entry of refugees, limiting it to security and political refugees while excluding economic refugees. Instead, they left the borders wide open, both legally and illegally. They also refused to establish camps at the border in the buffer zone between Lebanon and Syria, insisting on setting up camps inside Lebanon, even if they were random. They failed to count the refugees or take control of the sovereign decision regarding them and instead succumbed to international pressure, outsourcing the issue to international institutions.

“We are patriots in our country, true to our beliefs. They, on the other hand, are known for being hostages in the guise of sovereigns, corrupt in the guise of reformists, and profiteers in the guise of revolutionaries... And today, we have occupiers disguised as displaced people!” Bassil said.

“We are facing a new reality, one where we’ve moved from an army of soldiers to an army of displaced people. And now, we’re confronted with a harsh but undeniable truth: occupiers in the guise of displaced people”, he added.

“We are raising our voices so that the displaced return to their land and don’t become occupiers. The FPM fought to liberate Lebanon from occupation and the rule of militias, and April 26 marks a major victory for us”.

Bassil explained that the FPM had been working since 2011 on the battle to liberate Lebanon from the displaced, and that they paid the price for their opposition. “They continued to target us in 2019 because we faced the issue head-on, but we persevered. We were punished, but we didn’t back down.”

“We raised our voices alone, while the rest fought against us. The international community's demand was to confront the previous regime and put pressure on it from the outside. But when that was no longer an international demand, they began to outdo us by calling for the displaced's return in order to exert pressure on the former regime from within But when that was no longer an international demand, they began to outbid us by calling for the return of the displaced, using it as a tool to pressure the former regime from within. Now that the regime has changed and the international demand has shifted to keeping them in Lebanon, they fell silent.”

Bassil clarified what the FPM had done regarding this issue, recalling the positions of our president, the decisions of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our stances in the government, the laws we've presented in Parliament, and our actions on the ground.

“On the strategic level, we stood against the naturalization of the displaced and thwarted the military coup project by inciting and arming the displaced. We prevented the repeat of the Palestinian refugee experience by opposing the establishment of legitimate refugee camps and confronted the demographic change project in Lebanon, which serves the divisive agenda for the entire region,” he explained.

“On the initiative level, we stopped registering displaced people in 2014, reduced the number of registered refugees with the UNHCR from 1.275 million in 2014 to 831,000 after President Michel Aoun’s election. We enforced the registration of Syrian births in the non-Lebanese registry to prevent them from being considered stateless. We organized return trips for the displaced, opposed integration projects at international conferences, and presented seven laws in Parliament to prevent their entry and accelerate their return. In 2018, we established at the United Nations that Lebanon is not a country of asylum, and in 2019, the Supreme Defense Council decided to deport those who entered illegally. In 2020, the government approved, for the first time, a plan for their return,” he added.

Regarding the municipal elections, Bassil clarified: “We are now facing a municipal electoral challenge. We’ve said we approach it primarily as a family, developmental, and local issue, with a secondary political aspect. We've proven this by dealing with it through the families. In my city, we have political and electoral dominance, but we accepted consensus. As for the political side, we fully dedicate it to the Syrian displacement file. We support any municipality whose program defends the existence and livelihood of the Lebanese people and prevents displaced Syrians from taking away Lebanese people's livelihood. Any municipality, mayoral candidate, deputy, minister, or public employee, large or small, who doesn’t stand with their people against the displacement conspiracy is a traitor to their country. People must know them, hold them accountable, and expose them.”

“We are facing a national emergency due to the assault on our sovereignty and identity, and the municipalities are now the front line of our battle. The FPM will have the honor of liberating Lebanon from the army of Syrian displaced people,” he concluded.

NLP Tigers
NLP Tigers Interior commander, Jean Eid, confirmed that Lebanon was facing a crisis that threatened its stability due to the presence of two million displaced people, a situation exacerbated by the complicity of some domestic factions. “Those who called for borders closure were accused of racism, while some conspirators extended their support to the entry of displaced people. They sparked a revolution targeting the presidency, and anyone who opposed the presence of the displaced faced chaos, with the ultimate goal being the integration of the displaced and the naturalization of Palestinians,” he said.

Hayek
Naji Hayek, FPM VP for relations with external parties, stated: “Today, we are in a new battle: the battle for survival and identity. Our existence is in danger, our sovereignty is in danger, our economy is in danger, and our children are at risk.” He emphasized that displaced Syrians have become a security, economic, and demographic occupation. “If we don’t confront this, we will regret it, and the Lebanese people will be replaced by another population,” he said.

Aswad
Former Lebanese Forces deputy and lawyer, Elie Aswad, explained: “In 2011, displaced Syrians flooded Lebanon gradually, spreading across towns without supervision. Those who remained in the camps were provided with every means of sustenance. We fought the Palestinians to prevent displacement, only for them to return through the naturalization of the displaced.”

Abi Nader
Veteran fighter Walid Abi Nader remarked that, “In the toughest circumstances, we heard a free voice, the only one calling for the freedom of the people and the sovereignty of the land, and we felt pride. Today, it has become the fashion of the foolish to ask, ‘Are you still Aounist?’ We are the ones who liberated Lebanon from the Syrian army, and we will continue to liberate it from the remnants of low-minded and treacherous mentality.”

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