Beirut, Lebanon – On May 9, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam paid his second official visit to the Syrian capital, Damascus, since the fall of the al-Assad regime in 2024. The visit comes as Israeli attacks and territorial occupation continue in both Lebanon and Syria.
“This also marks the continuation of a ‘new framework’ for bilateral relations,” analysts told Al Jazeera. This follows years of Syria exercising political and security influence over Lebanon, with the Lebanese group Hezbollah supporting President Bashar al-Assad militarily during the Syrian civil war.
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“Damascus is framing the relationship between two sovereign and equal states and has aligned its rhetoric with institutional measures, such as suspending (in October) the (Lebanese-Syrian) High Council, which symbolizes Syria’s protection, and operating embassies on both sides,” Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.
new priorities
In December 2024, Syrian rebel groups launched an operation to retake government-controlled areas, including Damascus, from the clutches of the al-Assad regime. In the early morning of December 8, Bashar al-Assad left Syria, ending 50 years of rule by his dynastic family.
Al Assad left the country in shambles. An uprising against him in 2011 was violently suppressed by the junta, and the war that followed devastated vast areas of the country. Syria under al-Assad was isolated from the international community and suffered from repeated and complex international sanctions.
Lebanese political analyst Munir Rabi told Al Jazeera that the fall of Al Assad has changed the dynamics in Lebanon.
“No one in Lebanon expected al-Assad to fall, no one expected (Ahmed) al-Shara to come to power,” he said, referring to the current Syrian president who led the military offensive that toppled his predecessor.
Lebanon’s complex relationship with Syria begins with their foundations as modern states. While Mount Lebanon had some degree of local autonomy during the Ottoman Empire before 1918, Lebanon as a modern state was established under the post-Ottoman French Mandate and separated from Greater Syria.
The enforcement of the border has transformed the social, economic and political realities of many people in Syria and Lebanon. In 1971, President Hafez al-Assad came to power in Syria, and a few years later a civil war broke out in Lebanon.
In 1976, Syria under al-Assad invaded and occupied parts of Lebanon, retaining significant political and security influence until popular protests led to the expulsion of Syrian forces from Lebanon in 2005. Hafez al-Assad died in 2000 and was succeeded by his son Bashar.
Even after Syrian forces left Lebanese territory, Syria maintained influence through the regime’s local allies. That influence began to wane after the 2011 Syrian uprising shifted the country’s focus to its internal dynamics, but al-Assad’s ouster still marks a significant change in Lebanon.
The fall of al-Assad’s regime cut off land routes through which Hezbollah could receive funding and weapons from its backer, Iran. Both Al Assad and Hezbollah are seen as part of Iran’s ‘resistance axis’, and Hezbollah has also played a key role in suppressing opposition to Al Assad in Syria.
Syria’s new government, led by al-Sharaa, was staunchly opposed to Hezbollah. It also aimed to return the country to the international community, lift Assad-era sanctions, and assume a significant economic role in the region.
In the case of Lebanon, Syria has signaled its intention to treat its neighbor as an equal rather than a territory to control or an arena to fight over. This new relationship brought with it a new set of priorities.
“Damascus’ top priorities on the Lebanon file are border control and demarcation, the transfer of Syrian prisoners held in Lebanese prisons, the return of refugees on terms that Damascus can manage, and Assad-era figures who have fled to Lebanon,” Hawach said. “The recovery of Syrian deposits trapped in Lebanese banks is behind it, and economic files such as gas, electricity and transport rank lower, despite generating most of the public rhetoric.”
new page
One of the issues that made headlines was the more than 2,000 Syrians held in Lebanese prisons. Last March, 130 Syrian prisoners were transferred from Lebanon to Syria to serve out the remainder of their sentences, but hundreds more remain.
The issue is controversial in Lebanon, where some have been detained on charges of “terrorism” and others for attacks on the Lebanese army. But political gridlock, judicial strikes and political indifference meant that most of them were never brought to trial despite years of imprisonment.
Prime Minister Salam said that following the visit, prisoner issues and strengthening cooperation between the two countries were discussed.
“We discussed ongoing efforts to resolve the issue of Syrians detained (in Lebanon) and reveal the fate of missing and forcibly detained people in both countries,” Salam said after meeting al-Shara.
However, there are also two key issues affecting both countries that were not mentioned as priorities. That is, how both sides want to deal with Hezbollah and Israel’s encroachments on their respective territories.
When Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rumors began to spread in Lebanon about possible Syrian intervention. Al-Shara has rejected the idea of deploying troops to Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah, Reuters reported, citing sources briefed on the subject.
“What Damascus is already doing is probably the limit of what it will do going forward: sealing its borders, dismantling smuggling networks and, at least rhetorically, signaling support for the Lebanese state’s efforts to control all weapons (including Hezbollah),” Hawach said. “Beirut and Damascus have kept Hezbollah off the official bilateral agenda, and both seem to find the agreement useful.”
There is no agreement on Israel
In the case of Israel, the two countries are not currently discussing any kind of bilateral action or agreement, and instead appear to be focused on internal stability.
“Beirut and Damascus share a genuine common interest in preventing Israeli territorial expansion and the risk of being pressured into a unilateral agreement, but there appears to be no structured coordination between them on the Israeli file,” Hawach said. “Each is negotiating individually under the mediation of the United States, and what currently exists is only leadership-level consultation.”
Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have claimed nearly 3,000 lives since March 2 as Israeli forces advanced south, causing widespread destruction, demolishing homes and displacing more than 1.2 million people. On April 16, President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire. Since then, there has been only one airstrike on a Beirut suburb, but this has not stopped Israeli attacks and displacement orders in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah also did not retaliate.
However, Syria also could not avoid Israel’s attack. In the year following Al Assad’s fall, Israel attacked Syria more than 600 times. On May 17, Fadel Abdulghany of the Syrian Human Rights Network accused Israel of “gradual annexation” of southern Syria. The day after Al Assad fell, Israel seized more land in the occupied Golan Heights.
The Syrian state has sought to avoid Israeli attacks and instead use its renewed global standing to strengthen itself. In November 2025, al-Shara’s relationship with Trump blossomed when he became the first Syrian leader to visit the White House.
Nevertheless, Israel attacked Syrian military bases as recently as March and continued to set up checkpoints on Syrian territory, Syrian media reported.
“Israel occupies parts of Lebanon and Syria,” Ravi added, “and is trying to create discord between the two countries.” But Rabih added that new alliances are forming in the region.
“Türkiye and Saudi Arabia want Lebanon and Syria to cooperate,” he said. He added that Syria and Lebanon will seek protection from a broader alliance that could persuade the United States to pressure Israel to stop its aggression and land grabs.
But analysts said the file would become part of a wider regional framework. For the time being, Lebanon and Syria appear to operate on equal footing, despite Syria’s history of hegemony over its smaller neighbor. But the priorities for each country, especially Syria, are its own domestic issues.
“Lebanon is not currently a priority file for Damascus,” Hawach said. “The new government is preoccupied with stabilizing Syria, managing Israel and securing funding for reconstruction, and is neither willing nor able to pursue a more ambitious agenda in Lebanon even if it wanted to.”
