Lebanon may hold conference on Syrian refugees' return to homeland

BEIRUT, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil discussed with a visiting Russian envoy the possibility of holding a conference on the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.

Russian President's Special Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev led a delegation to discuss reactivating the Russian strategy drafted last year to secure the safe return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, said a report by the Al-Hayat local newspaper on Thursday.

Lebanon is hosting 976,000 registered Syrian refugees according to the the the UN Refugee Agency, while the government estimates the true number of Syrian refugees in the country at 1.5 million.

The strategy aims at securing the return of 890,000 Syrian refugees to Syria.