Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib speaks by phone with his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani
DUBAI — Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group played a major part in propping up Syria’s ousted president Bashar al-Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war it initiated with Israel — a redeployment that weakened the Syrian government lines.
Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria, and into Lebanon. But on December 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist rebels captured the capital Damascus.
The rebels’ lightning sweep across Syria came shortly after a ceasefire in November halted the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah began attacking across Israel’s northern border in support of Gaza the day after October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating attack on Israel that opened the still-ongoing war in Gaza.
The northern conflict spiraled into open war by September after which Israel decimated Hezbollah’s leaders and and its weapons stockpiles until the fragile ceasefire was reached. However, Hezbollah remains a major military and political force in Lebanon.
Syria’s new Islamist de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that he wants “correct” ties with Syria and that Israel has no intention of getting involved in the country’s internal affairs.
“But we certainly do intend to do what is necessary to ensure our security,” Netanyahu said at the time.
Following Assad’s fall, Israel moved to destroy Syrian regime weapons sites before they could fall into the hands of hostile elements amid the chaotic takeover by rebel groups, many of which were originally formally linked with al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups.
Netanyahu said at the time that the Israeli Air Force was bombing “military strategic capabilities” left by the military of the ousted Assad regime, “so that they won’t fall into the hands of the jihadists.”
Israel has also moved into a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights that was established at the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
The Assad regime was an ally of Iran and a part of the latter’s so-called Axis of Resistance against Israel.
Israel and Syria do not have diplomatic relations and have been in a perpetual state of war, albeit a relatively quiet one, since Israel declared independence in 1948.
While the fall of the Assad regime, which stood for over five decades, could provide a historic opportunity for recognition between Israel and its neighbor, the potential power vacuum in Syria could also provide an opportunity for further chaos and serve as a breeding ground for a resurgence of terror in the region.
