April 3, 2014 -- Updated 1214 GMT (2014 HKT)
The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has passed 1 million, the
U.N.'s refugee agency said, making up almost a quarter of the country's
resident population. FULL STORY
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IRC: REMEMBER SYRIA
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STARVATION
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Number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon passes 1 million, U.N. says
April 3, 2014 -- Updated 0949 GMT (1749 HKT)
IRC's plea to remember Syria's refugees
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- U.N. staff in Lebanon register 2,500 new Syrian refugees every day
- The refugees now make up almost a quarter of the resident population
- "For Lebanon ... the impact is staggering," a U.N. official says
- Lebanon has the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world
"The influx of a million
refugees would be massive in any country. For Lebanon, a small nation
beset by internal difficulties, the impact is staggering," U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
Their numbers have made Lebanon the country with the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world, the agency said.
The total number of
registered Syrian refugees in all countries is 2.58 million, according
to the United Nations. Other nations with large populations of Syrian
refugees include Jordan and Turkey.
Refugee sets herself on fire
Angelina Jolie visits Syria refugees
The number in Lebanon has now risen into seven figures, from just 18,000 two years ago.
The United Nations has
said that more than 100,000 people, many of them civilians, have been
killed in Syria since a popular uprising spiraled into a civil war in
2011.
U.N. staff in Lebanon register 2,500 new Syrian refugees every day, the UNHCR said.
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Opinion: Forget Ukraine, Syria is now the world's biggest threat
April 3, 2014 -- Updated 1216 GMT (2016 HKT)
Whatever else they may disagree about, Syria's militias are united in their opposition to western values and interests.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Russia's annexation of Crimea, and feared threat to invade Ukraine, has grabbed attention
- Simon Tisdall says Syria, not Crimea, directly affects western security in more basic ways
- Much of northern Syria under control of jihadi groups, united in opposition to West - Tisdall
- Syria is in the process of becoming a bridgehead to Europe for al Qaida, he adds
Editor's note: Simon Tisdall is assistant editor and foreign affairs columnist at the Guardian. He was previously foreign editor of the Guardian and The Observer and
served as White House correspondent and U.S. editor in Washington D.C.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely his.
(CNN) -- Russia's annexation of Crimea, and what
many fear is its apparent threat to invade Ukraine, has riveted
international attention since the crisis erupted with February's
revolution in Kiev. Excitable talk has proliferated as fast as North
Korean missiles.
Pundits obsess about a
new Cold War, a showdown with "mad bad Vlad" Putin, and the resulting
need to boost military spending (always a Pentagon favorite). The talk
is all Ukraine, Ukraine. Politicians and diplomats have put everything
else on hold.
Simon Tisdall
Including Syria, which is
a big mistake. Far more than an argument over an obscure shard of
territory on the edge of Nowhere-on-Don, the catastrophe now taking place in and around Syria ranks as a fundamental challenge and threat to the current world order.
Syria, not Crimea,
directly affects western security in very basic ways. What's happening
there is changing the power balance in the Middle East. And unlike in
Ukraine or the Baltic republics or other post-Soviet lands, a vast human
catastrophe is unravelling, apparently without end. In Syria's real,
not phoney, war, more than 100,000 people have died so far.
The total number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, for example, has now passed the 1 million mark,
according to the U.N.'s refugee agency -- and that does not include the
tens of thousands who have not registered with the agency. About 12,000
are fleeing Syria for Lebanon each week.
What drives British jihadists in Syria?
Syria a 'lightning rod' for jihadists
2013: A Syrian town ruled by rebels
The refugee outflow is
also affecting Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq. As the war enters its
fourth year, the overall refugee total is around 2.5 million. A further
6.5 million Syrians are internally displaced, and 9.3 million are in
need of humanitarian assistance, according to the U.N.
The suffering concealed behind these bald figures is appalling, as any
visitor to the refugee camps will testify. Children are particularly
badly affected.
Yet even if they are not
swayed by the human cost of a conflict that has become depressingly
familiar, basic considerations of self-interested realpolitik suggest
governments, politicians and diplomats should be paying more attention
to Syria.
One obvious reason is the
way the war has been exploited to facilitate the spread of Islamist
fundamentalism. Large areas of northern Syria are now under the control
of jihadi groups and militias who, whatever else they may disagree
about, are united in their opposition to western values and interests.
Syria is in the process of becoming a bridgehead to Europe for al Qaida and like-minded fanatics. It is already a magnet for young European Muslim men who want a piece of the global jihad. They then bring their new "skills" home.
A second reason to take a
second look at Syria is the way instability there is steadily spreading
outwards to affect neighboring countries. Turkey's neo-Islamist
government, having initially tried to broker a peace deal, now regards
itself as virtually at war with Bashar al-Assad's regime. Last week the Turks very deliberately shot down a Syrian warplane they said had violated their airspace.
The threat of a
Syria-Turkey conflict aside, the impact on Turkey's politics and people
has been considerable. The increasingly authoritarian behaviour of Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, to some degree reflects the
pressure the country is under. Kurdish militants trying to make common
cause with their divided Syrian counterparts is one concern. Another is
that border areas inundated with refugees are becoming less governable.
Growing instability and
consequent political uncertainty are also affecting pro-western Lebanon
and Jordan, while apparently reviving Shia-Sunni conflict in Iraq is
being fed by the Syrian flames. Recent reports suggest many Iraqi Shia fighters are now inside Syria, determined (like the Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon) to bolster the Assad regime against its mostly Sunni foes.
In geopolitical terms,
the Syrian collapse has provided Iran with an opportunity to extend its
influence into the heart of the Arab world, opening up a new front in
its proxy war with the Sunni monarchies of the Gulf led by Saudi Arabia.
No doubt to Iran's delight, Riyadh's displeasure at the Obama
administration's refusal to get directly involved in Syria has caused a rift between the two long-time allies.
Given the current state of western relations with Tehran, handing Iran a
free boost in this way is a serious diplomatic own goal.
The ongoing failure to
address and resolve the Syrian conflict has numerous other far-reaching
consequences. What goes for Iran goes for Russia, too. Its obstinate and
unprincipled support for Assad has come cost-free as the U.S. and
Europe dither and the Geneva "peace process" leads precisely nowhere.
Perceived American weakness over Syria may even have encouraged Vladimir
Putin in his Crimean misdemeanors.
Al-Assad's continued
survival as Syria's head of state is an egregious affront to the U.N.
Security Council and its various related Syria resolutions, to the U.N.
charter, to international law, and specifically to international war
crimes legislation. Al-Assad stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, not least over the use by his forces of chemical weapons against civilian populations.
But once again, nothing
much is done, and the credibility of such institutions and laws suffers
as a result. The moral example set by such dereliction is shocking.
A lot has been made of
the bad precedent Russia set by annexing the territory of an independent
sovereign state. And it is fair to say such behavior is unacceptable
and illegal, and should not be emulated by others. But in the overall
scheme of things, the Crimea problem fades into insignificance when set
alongside the dreaded ramifications and implications, short and long
term, of the international community's plain inability or its lamentable
lack of will to halt the Syrian war.
SYRIA'S REFUGEE CRISIS
After her family is denied food aid in Lebanon, a desperate mother of four sets herself on fire.
- Refugee camp that's a city
- Yarmouk refugees starve
- COPY http://edition.cnn.com/
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