Disarming Palestinian camps to start mid-June, official says after committee meeting

The disarmament of Palestinian camps in Lebanon will begin next month based on an accord with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Lebanese government official told AFP on Friday.

The Lebanese and Palestinian sides agreed on starting a plan "to remove weapons from the camps, beginning mid-June in the Beirut camps, and other camps will follow," the source told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

By longstanding convention, the Lebanese Army stays out of the Palestinian camps -- where Abbas' Fatah movement, militant group Hamas and other armed groups are present -- and leaves the factions to handle security.

Abbas has been in Beirut since Wednesday for talks on disarming the Palestinian refugee camps as Lebanon seeks to impose its authority on all its territory.

The deal came during the first meeting of a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee announced Wednesday to follow up on the situation in the camps.

Lebanon's Director of General Security Hassan Choucair, chairman of the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee Ramez Dimashqieh, and Palestinian Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Azzam al-Ahmad attended the meeting.

The meeting was also attended by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

A statement from the committee released by the premier's office said it agreed to "launch the process of handing over weapons according to a specific timetable, accompanied by practical steps to bolster the economic and social rights of Palestinian refugees."

Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA, many living in 12 overcrowded official camps.

Most are descendants of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their land during the creation of Israel in 1948.

They face a variety of legal restrictions in Lebanon, including on employment.