Plight of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Highlighted (Palenstinians-Report: Lebanon-Abbas‪)‬

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Lebanon this week and held talks with Lebanese government officials including President Michel Suleiman, House Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. Ostensibly, his visit was to extend Palestinian congratulations to Lebanon for forming a new government but the agenda of talks included a large number of issues that needed discussing. As far as Lebanon was concerned, the most urgent issue was the Palestinian weapons inside and outside the refugee camps. Some of those weapons are held by Palestinian factions loyal to Syria and, therefore, Syria's help in controlling them is essential. Most other factions belong to Abbas' mainstream faction Fatah or groups that are members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). A national dialogue committee recommended in 2006 that Palestinian weapons outside the refugee camps should be banned, and those inside the camps should be better organized.