The Donald Trump administration's pro-Israel policies are creating a crisis for the entire region, Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said today.

Beyond their direct harm to the Palestinians, recent US aid cuts to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), appear aimed at dropping the refugee issue in the lap of neighboring countries, he said.

“This is a step forward to, one, deprive them from the right to return and, two, to somehow take the title of refugee and turn them into integrated people in our country,” Bassil told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of his visit to the UN General Assembly in New York. “The world cannot follow only the wish or the will of the United States. This is a moral obligation on the international community to abide by their commitment to Lebanon, to Jordan, to Syria, to Palestine. It is a big mistake that was committed by the international community, and it's not … up to Lebanon to pay the price alone for such a big historical error.”

Bassil said Lebanon would be raising the issue in all its bilateral meetings this week in the hope of rallying friendly countries “to fill the gap that was left by the Americans.”