KARACHI, July 28: One of the major destabilising factors in Lebanon is the presence of huge and widespread refugee population which should be taken note of by countries of the region.

This was stated by former foreign secretary Najmuddin A. Shaikh in response to a question regarding his presentation on “The recent Lebanon-Israel war and its impact on the region” at the Area Study Centre for Europe, University of Karachi, on Saturday.

He maintained that the future of Lebanon was bleak due to the presence of so many factions, each of them enjoying support from different patrons at home and abroad.

One of the principle destabilising factors, he said, was the presence of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Their camps, he claimed, played a major role in the factional strife in that country. He was of the view that neglect in handling the refugee and sectarian issue contributed to Lebanon’s instability.

He said that the country was politically paralysed and desperately needed revival of economic activities to recover from the devastation caused due to the Israel’s invasion. This was of course not the first time Lebanon had been destroyed, he said.

Mr Shaikh said that Lebanon had once again returned to the spotlight due to the nine-week-old confrontation between the Lebanese army and extremist elements reportedly holed up in the Nahr-al-Bared Palestine refugee camp.

He referred to the reports that Syria was supporting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fateh Intifada, and As-Saiqa in Lebanon.

Both Lebanon and the United Nations say that the 16 militant outposts held by pro-Syrian Palestinian factions, who lie outside the 12 established Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, are being reinforced with personnel and weapons smuggled in from Syria with the aim of sowing further instability.

Referring to situation in the neighborhood of Lebanon, Mr Shaikh felt that an agreement was possible on Sheba Farms but US support to the Israel had obstructed any progress.

Mr Shaikh recalled his earlier thesis that that there was little prospect of Israel conceding even after what was perceived as being its defeat, the demands that the Hezbollah was making.

His prognosis, he claimed, had proved to be all together too true. Hezbollah had emerged as the leader of the Shia faction and had been able to bring to a standstill the activities of the Fouad Sinoria government with its supporters occupying the centre of the city of Beirut but they had not yet been able to wrest complete control of the government, he said, adding that the Sinoria government enjoyed the support of the US, France and Saudi Arabia and was difficult to be displaced easily.

He said that the USA for instance was providing $280 million annually for the training and equipping of the Lebanese army and allegedly using the country as a battlefield for its own conflicts.

The late prime minister Hariri, who was credited with having done much to reconstruct Lebanon after the destructive civil war, was reportedly assassinated by agents of the Syrian intelligence after he refused to obey instructions from Damascus to re-elect President Lahoud after the expiry of his term.

Mr Shaikh recalled his statement a year ago in which he had said that the blind support the Americans had offered to the Israel in its battle against the Hezbollah had further intensified anti-American feelings in the region and in the Muslim world.