His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb..., whose Iran-backed movement fights alongside Damascus, also said a "very big victory" was coming in south Syria, where an army offensive has made rapid gains against holy warriors.
As Syrian government forces and their allies retake more territory, some Lebanese officials have stepped up calls for refugees to leave for parts of Syria where violence died down.
U.N. officials and foreign donor states to Leb have said conditions for returns are not yet fulfilled in Syria, where a political deal to end the multi-sided war remains elusive.
In a televised speech, Nasrallah said Hezbollah was establishing a mechanism to return "the biggest possible number" of Syrians refugees who want to go home safely and voluntarily.
"We are ready to help ... and we will continue helping until this matter is settled politically and officially between the Lebanese and Syrian governments," he added.
In the next few months, Hezbollah will directly collect requests for returns from refugees, deliver them to Syrian authorities, and coordinate with General Security, he said.
Leb's Shia Hezbollah has provided vital support to Syria's military in the seven-year war across the border, helping it regain swathes of the country.
The conflict has driven 11 million Syrians from their homes, including more than one million to Leb, nearly a quarter of its population, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR says. The Lebanese government puts the number at 1.5 million.
Nasrallah said without elaborating that "international and local groups" were misinforming Syrian refugees and scaring them out of leaving Leb to return home.
Leb's Foreign minister Gebran Bassil, whose FPM party is a political ally of Hezbollah, has pressed for more returns and accused UNHCR this month of preventing Syrians from going back.
UNHCR denies this, saying it supports safe return and respects individual decisions to return, while major foreign donors have voiced dismay at what they called "false accusations".
Prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri, who opposes the Syrian government, has said that Leb is against forced returns of refugees.
President
Michel Aoun...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah
...
Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as
The Resistanceand purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
...
has called the influx of mainly Sunni Syrian refugees an existential threat to Leb, which maintains a fragile balance between several religious sects.
Nearly 400 refugees left the Lebanese border region of Arsal for Syria on Thursday, a rare case of returns and a small fraction of the estimated 50,000 living in the town.
Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of General Security, said this was the first batch out of thousands who want to go home.
Still, Ahad Kalkoush, a member of a Syrian refugee council in the town, the bulk of refugees in Arsal will only go back in a U.N.-supervised return, fearing persecution in Syria.