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US faces uneasy choice between Lebanese Christians and Syrian refugees

Lebanese Christians are making a religious case for the Trump administration to back the repatriation of refugees to Syria
US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback speaks during the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in the Loy Henderson Auditorium of the State Department in Washington, DC on July 18, 2019. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP)        (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK — Leading a religious freedom event at the United Nations on Monday, President Donald Trump echoed America's founding fathers in asserting that “no right is more fundamental to a peaceful, prosperous and virtuous society than the right to follow one’s religious convictions.”

Behind the scenes, however, his administration is under growing pressure to take sides in the Middle East's sectarian strife.

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