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Syrian Government Calls on Refugees to Return Home

by Associated Press

   BEIRUT --

   The Syrian government on Tuesday called on refugees to return, saying
   it had successfully cleared large areas of "terrorists.''

   The rare appeal reflected the government's growing confidence after
   more than seven years of war. While officials usually appeal to Syrians
   abroad to return during television appearances and interviews, this was
   the first formal appeal broadcast on official media.

   Syrian government forces, with crucial support from Russia and Iran,
   recently retook large areas near the capital, Damascus, and are waging
   a new offensive in the south that U.N. officials say has displaced more
   than 270,000 people.

   The U.N. Security Council scheduled closed consultations for Thursday
   on the offensive and the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation
   in the southwest at the request of Sweden and Kuwait.

   The government currently controls over 61 percent of Syria, compared
   with early 2017, when it held just 17 percent, according to the
   Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely
   monitors the conflict.

   The government refers to all rebels as "terrorists.''

   Over 5.6 million Syrians have fled the country. Many Syrians are unable
   to return because their homes were destroyed in the fighting, or
   because they fear military conscription or retribution from government
   forces.

   Also on Tuesday, a senior U.N. official visited a Palestinian refugee
   camp in Damascus that government forces recaptured in May. The Yarmouk
   camp, a built-up residential area once home to tens of thousands of
   Palestinians and Syrians, was held by Islamic State group and other
   insurgents for years, and it saw heavy fighting.

   "The scale of the destruction in Yarmouk compares to very little else
   that I have seen in many years of humanitarian work in conflict
   zones,'' said Pierre Krahenbuhl, the commissioner-general of the U.N.
   agency for Palestinian refugees.

   The camp, once home to 160,000 Palestinian refugees, now lies in ruins.
   Krahenbuhl, on a three-day visit, also met with displaced Palestinian
   refugees in areas around Damascus. They expressed "anxieties'' about
   the prospects of their return and reconstruction, he said.

   Krahenbuhl said U.S. funding cuts had created "the largest ever funding
   shortfall in UNRWA's history.'' The agency has a deficit of $446
   million, he said, and has since mobilized to raise $200 million through
   other donors. He said the priority is to keep schools around Syria open
   for Palestinian refugees.

   UNRWA provides basic services to Palestinian refugees from what is now
   Israel and their descendants, who now number around 5 million and are
   scattered across the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and
   Jordan.