BEIRUT, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Hezbollah's Deputy Leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said Friday that the United States does not want Syrian refugees to return to their homeland in a bid to give an impression that Syria will never be stable again, local media reported.

"The United States failed to get rid of the Syrian regime. It also has an interest in proving that Syria will never go back to its prosperous days while proving their point by highlighting the hesitance of refugees to go back home," Qassem was quoted as saying by the National News Agency.

Qassem added that the United States wants to keep refugees in Lebanon in a bid to destabilize and weaken the country and disable it from making independent decisions.

Qassem said that Syria has become safer than before and tens of thousands of refugees have returned and they are living safely in the country.

The deputy leader added that Lebanon cannot sustain any longer the burden imposed by the presence of this great number of Syrian refugees in the country.