Lebanon is still in the process of renegotiating its memorandum of understanding with UNHCR.In the meantime, Syrians face growing hostility in their host countries.
Already, too, the increasingly open hostility between Syrian Sunnis and Shias has rekindled sectarian passions in Iraq, Lebanon and as far afield as Yemen, bringing closer the possibility of a direct clash between the Shia superpower, Iran, and big Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
A White House fact sheet also cited Iran's material support for terrorism, role in the Syrian regime's atrocities, hostility toward Israel, threats to freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf, "grievous" human-rights abuses, detention of American citizens "on specious charges," and cyberattacks on Israeli and U.S. allies in the Middle East.
"They are everywhere, the Syrians -- stupidly," said Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Druse minority, whose authority as a clan chieftain affords him some freedom to speak his mind and who believes the Syrian behavior unnecessarily creates hostility.
His police branch has been seen as a bastion of influence for Lebanon's 30% Sunni Muslim minority, and also as a locus of hostility towards the Syrian regime, which has long exercised overweening influence in its smaller neighbour.
David Bowers, the Democratic mayor of Roanoke, said in a statement that he has asked local agencies to suspend any assistance to Syrian refugees "until these serious hostilities and atrocities end, or at the very least until regarded as under control by U.S. authorities, and normalcy is restored". .
According to Munir al-Rayyis, a prominent Syrian journalist and nationalist activist, personal hostility between al-Kharrat and al-Shallash was well-known among the rebels.
According to a Guardian report, H.S.B.C. helped to keep open the Swiss bank accounts of Rami Makhlouf, the financier cousin of the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, after hostilities in Syria intensified.
Harling said words without action would have long-term consequences among Syrians: "There's a huge disconnect which is causing a lot of frustration and will cause ultimately hostility on the part of Syrians who hear a lot of empty statements but see very little happening on the ground".
