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On Thursday, 250 Syrian refugees returned to Lebanon supervised by Lebanese General Security, according to reports by the country's government authorities.
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"The vast majority of displaced Syrians have forcibly left their areas because of the fighting that was going on...And obviously, with the cessation of military confrontations, they can successively return to their homeland," according to Lebanese President Michel Aoun.
Civil-war fighting has gradually cooled in Syria, since the start of the offensive in 2011, with President Bashar al-Assad's administration gaining ground on opposition forces and foreign allies.
According to the United Nations, more than one million Syrian refugees are registered within Lebanese territory. The latter has stated that the figure is closer to 1.5 million, who have been displaced by the conflict.
Currently, there is a Lebanese-Russian joint committee which is working on drafting a strategy to help 890,000 Syrian refugees return to Lebanon in the near future.
In context, the civil war, in Syria, started in 2010. However, the United States became engaged in the internal conflict by supporting Syrian rebels and forming a coalition — with Britain and France — to fight the Islamic State Group as well as government targets, in 2014. The following year, a Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah coalition joined in to support the Syrian government. While Turkey got involved in 2016, in support of the Syrian rebels.
The conflict holds major geopolitical implications as Syria is Iran's main ally in the region and shares a border with Turkey — which is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Syria is also Russia's only Arab-country ally in the region.
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