Vatican embassy official talks about Syrian and Iraqi situation

(Vatican Radio) Lebanon  is hosting more than a million refugees  from the civil war in neighbouring Syria, a greater number than any other nation.   More recently,  the insurgency in Iraq by the ISIS Islamic militants is causing concern among many Lebanese people about the risk of further destabilization in the Middle East.  Monsignor Jain Mendez is a Councillor at the Apostolic Nunciature in Lebanon and spoke to Susy Hodges about those fears: 

Listen to the full interview with Monsignor Jain Mendez: 

Lebanon is officially home to more than 1 million Syrian refugees.  A small country whose population is about 4.5 million, Lebanon currently has the highest per-capita concentration of refugees of any country in the world.  Monsignor Jain Mendez says the sheer numbers of this influx have caused a dramatic worsening of the country’s economic situation but he pays tribute to the Lebanese as “generous and hospitable people.” However he says there is “a fear everywhere”  in Lebanon about the continuing Syrian refugee influx and more recently over the crisis in Iraq posed by the insurgency being waged by the ISIS Islamic militants.