The restoration of Syria’s membership in the League of Arab States will help the process of a political settlement of the crisis and push the refugees toward return, said head of the Russian National Center for Defense Management Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev at a session of the headquarters of Russia and Syria on the repatriation of refugees, Trend reports referring to TASS.
"The restoration of Syria’s position on the global scene, in particular its membership in the League of Arab States is an extremely important issue. It will serve as a convincing signal for the international community about the return of the country to peaceful life and the promotion of the process of the political settlement of the crisis, as well as push the refugees toward making positive decisions on the return to their homes," Mizintsev said.
He asked the Foreign Ministry representatives to place this issue under special control. The head of the national center also asked to control the situation at the Al Rukban camp, which is seeing heavy humanitarian problems.
Almost 300,000 refugees have returned to Syria from abroad, with a total of more than 1.55 million Syrians repatriated, Mizintsev also noted.
"More than 1,550,009 Syrian citizens returned to their homes today, of them more than 1,259,731 internally displaced people and more than 290,278 refugees from abroad," the Russian official stressed.
More than 291,000 Syrians returned to their homes since the beginning of the year, including almost 114,000 from abroad.
The main flow of refugees returning to Syria goes through the borders with Lebanon and Jordan, the general said. The Nasib checkpoint is operating most actively: more than 31,000 people returned through it from Jordan since the launch of the initiative to repatriate Syrians. About 20,400 people crossed the Nasib checkpoint last month, head of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of the Conflicting Sides and Control of the Refugees Movement Sergei Solomatin specified.
Solomatin said that about 4,670 people crossed the Abu al-Duhur checkpoint from the Idlib de-escalation zone.