By Jana Choukeir and Feras Dalatey
BEIRUT, July 2 (Reuters) – Syria’s foreign minister said during a visit to Beirut on Thursday that Damascus was open to meeting the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah “if interests require it”, Lebanon’s state news agency reported.
Asaad al-Shibani met Lebanese leaders including President Joseph Aoun and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, in his first visit to Lebanon since U.S. President Donald Trump raised the possibility of Syrian forces combating Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has previously denied what he called rumours about any Syrian presence entering Lebanon.
The former rebels and commanders that now run Syria fought against Hezbollah for years while it deployed fighters in Syria to support former President Bashar al-Assad.
Now that they are in power, they are having to calibrate alliances and military action carefully in efforts to maintain relative stability in Syria, which is still recovering from 14 years of civil war.
Aoun’s office said Sharaa had assured him Syria would not take sides in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
Syria’s new government under former al Qaeda commander Sharaa has emerged as a U.S. ally since his forces toppled Assad in 2024, and has largely stayed out of the regional war between the U.S. and Israel, and Iran.
Hezbollah’s war with Israel has devastated large parts of southern Lebanon. U.S.-backed efforts have brought a lull in fighting, but stopped short of ending the conflict.
Israeli forces carried out a large explosion targeting several houses in the southern Lebanese town of Hadatha on Thursday, state news agency NNA reported.
Shibani said the “Hezbollah file” was not raised during his meetings, but that Syria was open to meeting the group, NNA cited him as saying.
Trump said last month he had spoken to Sharaa about combating Hezbollah, after criticizing Israel for killing too many civilians in Lebanon. “I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah, because to be honest with you, I think they do a better job of doing it,” Trump said.
DAMASCUS WARY OF BEING DRAWN INTO WAR
Sharaa has since said that “the rumours circulating about Syria entering Lebanon are completely unfounded”, according to Syrian state media.
Shibani said Lebanon and Syria had signed an agreement establishing a high-level cooperation committee to strengthen bilateral ties.
“All we bring to Lebanon is love and a commitment to overcoming the painful legacy in relations between the two countries,” he said during a press conference.
Reuters reported in March that the United States had encouraged Syria to consider sending forces into eastern Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah, but Damascus was reluctant. Trump’s Syria envoy, Tom Barrack, later called the report “false and inaccurate”.
Syria long dominated Lebanon under the Assad family, sending in forces in 1976 during the 1975-90 civil war and controlling Lebanon’s post-war politics until its withdrawal in 2005.
Any Syrian intervention could fuel sectarian tensions in both Syria and Lebanon, home to a mosaic of sects including Sunni Muslims, Shi’ite Muslims, Christians and Druze.
(Writing by John Davison; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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