MOSCOW. July 24 (Interfax) - Over 2,000 refugees have arrived to Syria from Lebanon in the past 24 hours, the head of the National Defense Management Center, Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, said on Tuesday.
"I want to highlight the beginning of the well-organized and mass return of Syrians from Lebanon as a significant success. A total of 2,038 refugees came from that country in the past 24 hours," Mizintsev said at a meeting of the interagency coordination headquarters of the Russian Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry in charge of the return of refugees to Syria.
The Syrian leadership is taking great efforts to facilitate talks between the elders of populated localities and the ringleaders of illegal armed groups in the southern de-escalation area, he said.
"The evacuation of civilians from Kefraya and Al-Fua ended in the Idlib governorate. Forced migrants were delivered to the temporary accommodation center in Jibrin in the Aleppo governorate," Mizintsev said.
Efforts are also underway to deploy several branches of the Center for Refugee Reception, Distribution, and Settlement at the Abu-Duhur, Salhiyah, and Palmyra checkpoints, with 48% of construction work now complete.
The desire for cooperation expressed by relevant UN bodies and the leaders of Western countries is a good sign, Mizintsev said. "UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Andrej Mahecic expressed his readiness to work with Russia on resolving issues surrounding the return of Syrians to their permanent homes, while the German Foreign Ministry officially backed the Russian leadership's efforts to settle humanitarian problems in Syria," Mizintsev said.