BEIRUT, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon has an interest in creating dialogue with the Syrian government, said Lebanon's Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli on Friday.
"Lebanon has a direct interest in contacting the Syrian government to speed up the safe return of refugees to their homeland," he told Elnashra.
"Sooner or later there will be dialogue with the Syrian government on the economic, military, security, agricultural and financial levels," he said.
Although Lebanon has not cut diplomatic or trade ties with Syria, it has kept relations at "arm's length" avoiding official contacts with the Syrian government.
Lebanon has also kept itself away from regional conflicts after the Syria war broke in 2012.
But some political parties in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, Amal movement, and Free Patriotic Movement, have been pushing the government into normalizing ties with Syria in a bid to solve the issue of refugees and their safe return to Syria.
However, Lebanese Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri said that he refuses to visit Syria or meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, under any circumstances, even if that would cost him his position.
"It is impossible that I visit Syria, not now and not in the future ... and if Lebanon's interest requires so, then you could find someone else," Hariri said after a meeting with the Future Movement on July 31.
Hariri has been a long-time supporter of the Syrian opposition and has often been outspoken about his desire to see Assad removed from power.
Hariri is dealing with the refugees' crisis by following a strategy drafted by the Russian Defense Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after a meeting in Helsinki, Finland between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump last month.
According to the strategy, a Russian-Syrian-Lebanese security committee will be formed to facilitate the legal return of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to their homeland.
However, economic figures belonging to the Future Movement believe that Lebanon can still benefit from Syria's reconstruction even if it does not normalize ties with the neighboring country.
"Syrians are in need for the Lebanese expertise in different economic sectors," said Mohamad Choucair, head of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, as reported by Elnashra earlier this week.
Choucair said that the banking sector in Syria has deteriorated and Syrians will definitely seek to cooperate with the Lebanese on rebuilding this sector for instance.
