BEIRUT: Lebanon and Syria will form two committees to decide the fate of the nearly 2,000 Syrian prisoners held in Lebanese jails, locate Lebanese nationals missing in Syria for years and settle the shared unmarked border, judicial and security officials said.
Monday’s announcement came as a Syrian delegation, which included two former Cabinet ministers and the head of Syria’s National Commission for Missing Persons, visited Beirut, a first since insurgent groups overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government in early December.
Syria’s new administration, under interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, wants to “open a new page” with Lebanon and pave the way for a visit by the Syrian ministers of foreign affairs and justice, though a date is yet to be set, a Lebanese judicial and two security officials told The Associated Press.
The future visit could be a possible breakthrough between the two countries that have had tense relations for decades.
The current Syrian leadership resents Lebanon’s Iran-allied Hezbollah group for taking part in the country’s conflict, fighting alongside Assad’s forces, while many Lebanese still grudge Syria’s 29-year domination of its smaller neighbor, where it had a military presence for three decades until 2005.
Talks on Monday with Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri included Syrians held in Lebanese jails, of which about 800 have been detained for security reasons, such as attacks and shootings, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Many Syrians held in Lebanon are in jail without trial.
They also said the two sides discussed Lebanese citizens missing in Syria and the two countries shared border, where smuggling is common, and the estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon who escaped the uprising-turned-conflict in their home country over 14 years ago.
The Syrian side wanted to review bilateral agreements that were in place during the Assad family’s 54-year dynasty, but Lebanon suggested forming new agreements to deal with pending issues between the two nations, the Lebanese officials said.
Since the fall of Assad, two Lebanese prime ministers have visited Syria. Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Al-Sharaa also held talks on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Egypt in March.
The two neighbors had only agreed to open embassies in 2008, marking Syria’s first official recognition of Lebanon as an autonomous state since it gained independence from France in 1943.
Lebanon and Syria to form committees on prisoners, missing persons, and border issues
https://arab.news/zje6g
Lebanon and Syria to form committees on prisoners, missing persons, and border issues
- Syria’s new administration wants to “open a new page” with Lebanon
- It also wants to review agreements with Lebanon signed during the Assad family’s 54-year dynasty
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
