Lebanon's relations with Syria have made a dramatic positive shift post-Assad, deputy PM says

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's relationship with Syria is “radically different” since the fall of former President Bashar Assad, the senior Lebanese minister tasked with managing the country’s relations with its neighbor said on Tuesday.

“Under the Assad regime, Lebanon was de facto under Syrian tutelage. The Syrian regime interfered in domestic affairs in so many ways,” Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told The Associated Press. “The present Syrian government is neither interested in hegemony over Lebanon nor is it interfering in our internal affairs.”

Mitri was speaking days after Lebanon’s cabinet approved a treaty with Syria under which Lebanon will transfer more than 300 sentenced prisoners to finish their prison sentences in Syria.

Mitri said the transfers are expected to start within weeks.

Syrian prisoners

Lebanon and Syria have a complicated history, with grievances on both sides. Many Lebanese resent the decades-long occupation of their country by Syrian forces that ended in 2005. Many Syrians resent the role played by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah when it entered Syria’s civil war in defense of Assad’s government.

Despite improving relations, the two countries have wrestled with a number of thorny issues since Assad's fall, particularly the issue of Syrian prisoners held in Lebanese prisons.

There are about 2,500 Syrian prisoners in Lebanese jails, some of whom are held on charges related to their involvement with armed opposition groups that sought to overthrow Assad — in some cases, the same groups that are now ruling Syria.

Most of the prisoners to be transferred under the deal approved last Friday were not convicted of violent crimes, Mitri said. Those convicted of “major crimes” including “murder, fighting the Lebanese army and rape” are only eligible for transfer if they have already served 7.5 years of their sentence in Lebanon.

Another treaty is in the works under which Syrian prisoners awaiting trial could be transferred to their country, Mitri said, but that will need to be ratified by the Lebanese parliament and is likely to take more time.

The two countries have also formed a working group to investigate the fate of Lebanese citizens who disappeared in Syria and Syrians who disappeared in Lebanon, he said. Many of the disappeared Lebanese are believed to have been imprisoned — and potentially died in detention — during Assad’s iron-fisted reign.

Since Assad’s fall in a lightning offensive led by Islamist rebel groups in December 2024, reports have circulated that Assad-era officials who have taken refuge in Lebanon are plotting attacks against the new government.

Mitri said that Lebanon has not received from Syria a list of names of people they want extradited and has not found evidence of any armed plots.

While there are “middle-ranking leaders” from the former Syrian military and the Assad-era ruling Baath party now living in Lebanon, Mitri said, “they’re not militarily organized or militarily active.”

Lebanese security agencies “have investigated those areas where there was suspicion that there might be Syrian former military (officials) organizing themselves to to prepare subversive operations in Syria” and found “no proof of that,” he said.

Hezbollah's weapons

The more difficult relationship facing Lebanon is with its southern neighbor.

Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that nominally ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November 2024 Israel continues to strike Lebanon near daily and occupies five strategic hilltop points along the border. Israel has accused Hezbollah of seeking to rebuild.

Lebanon’s military announced last month that it had concluded the first phase of a plan to disarm non-state groups, including Hezbollah, in the border area south of the Litani River. Future phases are to progressively cover areas north of the river. The army is expected to present its plan for the second phase later this week after its commander, Gen. Rodolphe Haykal, returns from a trip to the U.S.

Hezbollah insists that the ceasefire only requires it to end its military presence south of the Litani and has said it will not discuss disarming in the rest of the country until Israel stops its strikes.

Mitri said that moving forward with the disarmament plan is “not conditional on steps from Israel.”

“But of course, as long as Israel does not respect the cessation of hostilities agreement - and they’ve not done it for the last year and three months - this makes the work of the army more complicated,” he said.

‘Neutral, internationally mandated force’

While there has been speculation that Lebanon and Israel might move to political negotiations and eventually to normalization of diplomatic relations, Mitri said their discussions currently remain confined to the ceasefire monitoring committee, which also includes representatives of the U.S., France and the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL.

It there is “full compliance with the agreement — that is withdrawal of the Israelis from from Lebanese outposts that they have occupied, stopping their strikes, freeing or handing over the Lebanese prisoners (held in Israel), then there might be other issues to negotiate,” such as demarcating the land border between the two countries, he said. “But short of of implementing the agreement, I can’t see what are we going to negotiate about in the immediate future."

Another looming question is the future of the border area after the expiration of UNIFIL's mandate at the end of this year.

Mitri said a number of proposals are under discussion for a successor force.

From Lebanon's perspective, he said: “We need a neutral, internationally mandated force to observe and make sure that whatever is agreed upon in negotiations is fully respected by parties and document violations."