Lebanon’s PM meets Syria’s de facto chief in Damascus
Lebanon’s Mikati and Syria’s al-Sharaa focus on bilateral points, together with smuggling between the 2 nations and border challenges.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has mentioned Beirut and Damascus will work collectively to safe their land borders, in addition to to delineate each land and sea borders.
Within the first journey by a Lebanese prime minister to neighbouring Syria in 15 years, Mikati addressed a joint information convention with Syria’s de facto chief Ahmed al-Sharaa within the capital Damascus on Saturday.
Al-Sharaa mentioned they’d mentioned points together with smuggling between the 2 nations, border challenges, and Syrian deposits in Lebanese banks.
He mentioned he anticipated “long-term strategic relations” with neighbouring Lebanon after the crisis-hit nation elected a much-needed president.
“We and Lebanon have nice shared pursuits,” al-Sharaa added.
Each side agreed to determine committees to handle these issues and supply help.
Al Jazeera’s Hamza Mohamed, reporting from Damascus, mentioned the 2 leaders agreed to work to forestall smuggling between the 2 nations.
“Smugglers used to ship weapons and medicines from Syria into Lebanon,” he mentioned.
“This was fairly necessary for the Lebanese chief and he talked about that,” our correspondent added.
Lebanon’s jap border is porous and identified for smuggling.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah supported al-Assad with fighters throughout Syria’s civil warfare.
Nonetheless, the Iran-aligned motion has been weakened after a warfare with Israel killed its longtime chief and broken the group’s firepower, an element serving to the Syrian rebels to grab Damascus final month.
Refugees
Al Jazeera’s Mohamed additionally mentioned al-Sharaa confused that his nation was looking for a strategy to resolve the query of Syrian refugees in Lebanon – a big burden to the nation’s crippled financial system.
Lebanon is estimated to host about 1.5 million Syrian refugees, who fled the civil warfare within the nation that began in 2011.
About 13 years of battle have killed greater than half one million folks, ravaged the financial system, and pushed tens of millions to flee their houses as they have been displaced internally and externally.
Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun mentioned on Thursday that there was a historic alternative for “critical and equitable dialogue” with Syria.
For a lot of the al-Assad household’s 5 a long time in energy, Syria held important affect over Lebanon, sustaining a army presence for 29 years within the face of widespread opposition from many Lebanese.
Syria ultimately withdrew its troops in 2005 beneath worldwide strain after the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
