Wawaf Salam meets Ahmed al-Sharaa to discuss border security, refugees and conforms to political murders under the defeated Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
The Lebanese Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, has held conversations in Damascus with the Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, on his first official visit to Syria, in an effort to recalibrate the relations between the two nations, which have tightened bones for decades.
The diplomatic ferry on Monday marks the highest-level Lebanese delegation that Syria visits from the new Government Tok Office of Beirut in February, after former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad by opposition for the entrance.
A Lebanese official, talk to the AFP news agency anonymously, since they were not authorized to the media, described the visit as “key to correcting the course of ties between the two countries at the base of mutual respect.”
‘Bilateral relations’ restoration’
The main correspondent of Al Jazeera, Zeina Khodr, who reports Damascus about a fundamental moment for Libano-Siria’s relations, said: “Without a doubt, this is a significant visit. Lebanese officials say it is an opportunity to correct the collection of relations of the” “.” “” “”
The two nations have faced tense ties marked by “conflict, friction and tension,” Khodr said.
“There was a time when Bashar al-Assad was in power. Syria was accused of interfering with the internal affairs of Lebanon to dictate internal policy in Lebanon,” he said, remembering the years of Syrian military presence in the war of the neighborhood field.
The recent political changes in both countries have opened new possibilities. “The new authorities are now in Damascus and there is also a new government in Lebanon … Al-Assad is out of power, and its ally, Hezbollah in Lebanon, he is no longer the dominant player,” Khodr said, restored that is all that has led a mutual. “
After the conversations and the Lebanese delegation left Damascus, Salam published in X: “My visit to Damascus today aims to open a new page in the history of relations between the two countries, based on mutual respect, restoring the confidence of the old one, preserving the non -interference in the internal affairs of the other.
The Lebanon prime minister also pointed out that “the discussions with President Ahmed al-Sharaa focused among other issues on border control and crossing, avoiding smuggling and finally demarcating the borders of the earth and the sea.”
Tense relations and political murders
Relationships between Lebanon and Syria have remained tense since the fall of Al-Assad. In addition, both countries have been regularly bombarded by Israel. In the case of Lebanon, that has come despite the high fire of November that ended a one -year war.
Monday conversations focused on border security, including efforts to combat smuggling and demarcate the 330 km border (205 miles).
Last month, the Defense Ministers of Lebanon and Syria signed a security agreement in Saudi Arabia after mortal border clashes that left 10 dead.
Beirut was also expected to press for joint investigation into political murders in Lebanon, linked to Syria’s old leadership.
Accompanied by higher ministers, Salam discussed the repatriation of Syrian refugees, with Lebanon estimating that it houses 1.5 million Syrians, he thought that the United Nations has registered only 750,000.
Before from Syria, Salam said he would also raise the issue of the Lebanese detainee that disappeared in Syrian prisons under the Al-Assad government.
This visit continues to a December meeting between Al-Sharaa and former Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati, the first encounter of this type since the Civil War of Syria began in 2011. Al-Sharaa had pleaded in December that Damascus Windig Lebanon’s pride.