By Tala Ramadan
(Reuters) -Syria’s de facto chief Ahmed al-Sharaa met Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Damascus on Saturday in a bid to enhance long-fraught ties, with the pair specializing in strengthening their shared border.
The journey was the primary by a head of presidency to Syria since Bashar al-Assad was toppled by a sweeping insurgent offensive on Dec. 8, and the primary go to by a Lebanese premier to neighbouring Syria in 15 years.
Ties between Damascus and Beirut have typically been fraught since they grew to become unbiased states within the Nineteen Forties.
The international locations agreed to work collectively to safe their land borders and delineate their shared land and sea borders as a matter of precedence, Mikati mentioned following the assembly.
“At the top of the list of priorities is the demarcation of the land and sea borders between Lebanon and Syria” and securing the border to forestall unlawful smuggling, he mentioned
It has additionally change into “urgent” to deal with the problem of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and have them return house, in response to an announcement by his workplace.
Practically 800,000 Syrians are registered as refugees in Lebanon, however officers estimate the quantity to be a lot larger and say they place an enormous burden on Lebanese public companies.
Al-Sharaa additionally named the border as his prime precedence, and mentioned the 2 leaders had mentioned Syrian deposits in Lebanese banks, which have been inaccessible attributable to a five-year monetary disaster in Lebanon.
“We hope that the Lebanese people will abandon the mentality of the previous Syrian relationship in Lebanon and the negative relations that followed,” Sharaa added, saying there was now an “opportunity to build a positive relationship.”
For a lot of the Assad household’s 5 many years in energy, Syria held important affect over Lebanon, sustaining a army presence there for 29 years till 2005 within the face of widespread opposition from many Lebanese.
The Iran-backed Lebanese Shi’ite Islamist group Hezbollah performed a serious half in propping up toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout Syria’s civil struggle, combating the Sunni Islamist insurgents who toppled him.
In 2014, as struggle raged in Syria, Syrian Islamist rebels took Lebanese troopers captive from the porous border space between the 2 international locations, executing a few of them.
Mikati was accompanied on his go to by Lebanon’s overseas minister Abdullah Bou Habib, the pinnacle of Lebanon’s normal safety company, which is chargeable for border administration, and the pinnacle of Lebanon’s army intelligence.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun mentioned following his election on Thursday that there was a historic alternative for “serious and equitable dialogue” with Syria.
Sharaa congratulated Aoun on assuming the presidency.
