Palestinians neutral in Syria, Lebanon unrest: Abbas

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas today said in Beirut that Palestinian refugees were not taking sides in the Syria war and are not involved in the spillover of the conflict in Lebanon.
"We are not a side in any conflict or struggle that is happening here (in Lebanon) or there (in Syria," Abbas said at the start of a three-day visit to Lebanon.
Abbas made the remarks following talks with President Michel Sleiman about the living conditions in Lebanon of Palestinian refugees, whose ranks have swollen with the arrival of thousands of Palestinians from war-hit Syria.
Abbas's visit comes a week after a fierce battle pitting supporters of radical Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir against the Lebanese army raged in the southern city of Sidon, in which 18 troops were killed.

At the same time, clashes broke out pitting the army against Islamist fighters on the edges of Ain al-Helweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, located in Sidon.
The violence was linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria, as Assir is a virulent critic of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, a close ally of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

Lebanon is home to some 4,70,000 Palestinian refugees living in 12 camps, most of which are over-crowded, the UN says. An estimated 65,000 Palestinians refugees have fled to Lebanon since the conflict broke out in Syria in March 2011.
Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from some 70 professions, and prohibited from owning property.

Last year, an NGO described living conditions of Palestinians in Lebanon's camps as the "worst of the region".