BEIRUT

Lebanon’s foreign minister has predicted the failure of the so-called “Deal of the Century”, a backchannel U.S. plan to reach a peace settlement between the Palestinians and Israel. 

The Deal of the Century "will be born dead," Gebran Bassil said in an interview with a local Lebanese television.

The minister stressed that a peace initiative should be "consistent with the rights that Israel should reinstate for Palestine".

The terms of Washington's peace plan remain vague. But according to recent speculation, Palestinian refugees will be asked to concede their right to return to historical Palestine, from which they were driven out in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

Speaking about the repatriation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Bassil said this could be achieved by "application of Lebanese law" and "relations with Syria".

He attributed the continued presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon to "the money they receive monthly from UN institutions."

Lebanon has at least 1.7 million Syrian refugees, about 27 percent of whom have no identity documents, according to the annual report of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, while the UN estimates the number as less than one million.

Writing By Mahmoud Barakat