Britain steps up support for refugees in Lebanon

British Foreign Secretary William Hague pledged Thursday to boost support to the Lebanese Army and increase funding for humanitarian relief for the nearly 300,000 Syrian refugees in the country.

In his first visit to Lebanon since being appointed in 2010, Hague announced that the U.K. would allocate Lebanon $17 million of aid previously pledged to support the regional response to the Syrian humanitarian crisis, bringing the country’s total contribution to Lebanon’s refugee response effort to $30 million.

The aid will be distributed largely to the United Nations, but $4 million will go to local civil society groups.

During a visit to a World Food Program distribution center in Burj Hammoud, Hague urged countries to deliver on the pledges they made at the Kuwait Donors Conference in January.

The money would provide clean water, food, blankets and lifesaving medical equipment to meet the most urgent needs of the estimated 800,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.

To further Britain’s support in “the search for justice within Lebanon,” he also pledged an additional $1.58 million to fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in 2013.