DUBAI: Syrian authorities have asked Lebanese security forces to hand over more than 200 senior officers who fled to Lebanon after the fall of Bashar Assad, following a Reuters investigation that showed how the neighboring country was a hub for insurgent plotting.
On Dec. 18, a top Syrian security official, Brig. Abdul Rahman Al-Dabbagh, met with his Lebanese counterparts in Beirut to discuss the exiled Assad-era officers, according to three senior Syrian sources, two Lebanese security officials, and a diplomat with knowledge of the visit.
The meetings came days after a Reuters investigation detailed rival plots being pursued by Rami Makhlouf, the billionaire cousin of the ousted president, and Maj. Gen. Kamal Hassan, former head of military intelligence, both living in exile in Moscow, to finance potential Alawite militant groups in Lebanon and along the Syrian coast. Syria and Lebanon share a 375-kilometer border.
The two rival camps aim to undermine the new Syrian government under President Ahmed Al-Sharaa. Reuters found they are sending money to intermediaries in Lebanon to try and stir uprisings that would divide Syria and allow the plotters to regain control over the coastal areas. The population of those areas is dominated by Alawites, the minority sect associated with the Assad family and the dictatorship’s ruling elite.
Al-Dabbagh, an aide to the head of internal security in Syria’s Latakia province, an Alawite stronghold, met with Lebanese intelligence chief Tony Kahwaji and Major General Hassan Choucair, head of the General Security Directorate, and presented them with the list of senior officers wanted by Syria.
The visit focused on gathering information about the whereabouts and legal status of the officers, as well as trying to find ways to prosecute or extradite them to Syria, according to the Syrian sources.
They described it as a direct request from one security agency to another, rather than a demand for extradition.
Three senior Lebanese security officials confirmed the meetings. One of the Lebanese officials denied receiving any demands from the Syrians to hand over the officers. Two others acknowledged receiving a list of names but said none were senior officers.
One of the Lebanese security officials said there is no evidence of any insurgency being planned, despite the threats against Syria’s new government detailed in the Reuters reporting.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal details of a highly sensitive cross-border issue.
Among the names handed over by Syrian officials to Lebanon were several high-ranking figures acting as intermediaries for Makhlouf or Hassan in Lebanon, according to a Syrian source who saw the list.
A Lebanese judicial official said Syria had not made a formal extradition request to Lebanon, typically done through the two countries’ justice and foreign ministries.
Accompanying Dabbagh on his Beirut visit was Khaled Al-Ahmad, a former Assad adviser and childhood friend of Sharaa, who is leading the government’s efforts to win over the Alawite community through development projects
and aid, according to two witnesses who saw the men together on that mid-December day.
According to the two witnesses, who are both ex-Assad officers, Al-Ahmad and Dabbagh went together to Azmi, an upscale Beirut restaurant that is popular among Assad’s men. The two witnesses said they and others interpreted the outing as a warning to those trying to influence Alawites to rise up against Syria’s new leaders that Lebanon is no longer a haven.
A manager at Azmi declined to comment on the visit.
In a Jan. 2 post on X, Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri called on his government’s security agencies to verify the information circulating in the media and take action against the Lebanon-based agents for Assad’s former insiders, Makhlouf and Hassan.
“It is incumbent upon them, and upon all of us, to avert the dangers of any actions that undermine Syria’s unity or threaten its security and stability, whether in Lebanon or originating from it,” the tweet read.
In response to questions from Reuters, Lebanon’s General Security referred to Jan. 11 remarks by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who said Lebanon’s military intelligence and other security agencies had carried out raids in several areas of the country’s north and east. Aoun said the raids did not produce evidence of the presence of officers linked to the Assad dictatorship and said Lebanon was continuing to coordinate with Syria on the issue.
Syrian government officials did not respond to requests for comment.
From Jan. 3 to Jan. 6, Lebanese soldiers raided locations and shelters housing displaced Syrians. The Lebanese Army said 38 Syrians were arrested during the raids on different charges such as possession of drugs or weapons, or entering the country illegally.
A senior Lebanese security official told Reuters those raids were linked to the exiles’ plots.
Another senior Lebanese security official emphasized that there was no arrest warrant for the Syrian officers in Lebanon, nor Interpol requests for them.
“We can’t do anything against them,” the official added.
Syria asks Lebanon to hand over Assad-era officers after Reuters report
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Syria asks Lebanon to hand over Assad-era officers after Reuters report
- Among the names handed over by Syrian officials to Lebanon were several high-ranking figures acting as intermediaries for Makhlouf or Hassan in Lebanon
Israel’s settler movement takes victory lap as a sparse outpost becomes a settlement within a month
- Smotrich, who has been in charge of Israeli settlement policy for the past three years, has overseen an aggressive construction and expansion binge aimed at dismantling any remaining hopes of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank
YATZIV SETTLEMENT, West Bank: Celebratory music blasting from loudspeakers mixed with the sounds of construction, almost drowning out calls to prayer from a mosque in the Palestinian town across this West Bank valley.
Orthodox Jewish women in colorful head coverings, with babies on their hips, shared platters of fresh vegetables as soldiers encircled the hilltop, keeping guard.
The scene Monday reflected the culmination of Israeli settlers’ long campaign to turn this site, overlooking the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour, into a settlement. Over the years, they fended off plans to build a hospital for Palestinian children on the land, always holding tight to the hope the land would one day become theirs.
That moment is now, they say.
Smotrich goes on settlement spree
After two decades of efforts, it took just a month for their new settlement, called “Yatziv,” to go from an unauthorized outpost of a few mobile homes to a fully recognized settlement. Fittingly, the new settlement’s name means “stable” in Hebrew.
“We are standing stable here in Israel,” Finance Minister and settler leader Bezalel Smotrich told The Associated Press at Monday’s inauguration ceremony. “We’re going to be here forever. We will never establish a Palestinian state here.”
With leaders like Smotrich holding key positions in Israel’s government and establishing close ties with the Trump administration, settlers are feeling the wind at their backs.
Smotrich, who has been in charge of Israeli settlement policy for the past three years, has overseen an aggressive construction and expansion binge aimed at dismantling any remaining hopes of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank.
While most of the world considers the settlements illegal, their impact on the ground is clear, with Palestinians saying the ever-expanding construction hems them in and makes it nearly impossible to establish a viable independent state. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967, as part of a future state.
With Netanyahu and Trump, settlers feel emboldened
Settlers had long set their sights on the hilltop, thanks to its position in a line of settlements surrounding Jerusalem and because they said it was significant to Jewish history. But they put up the boxy prefab homes in November because days earlier, Palestinian attackers had stabbed an Israeli to death at a nearby junction.
The attack created an impetus to justify the settlement, the local settlement council chair, Yaron Rosenthal, told AP. With the election of Israel’s far-right government in late 2022, Trump’s return to office last year and the November attack, conditions were ripe for settlers to make their move, Rosenthal said.
“We understood that there was an opportunity,” he said. “But we didn’t know it would happen so quickly.”
“Now there is the right political constellation for this to happen.”
Smotrich announced approval of the outpost, along with 18 others, on Dec. 21. That capped 20 years of effort, said Nadia Matar, a settler activist.
“Shdema was nearly lost to us,” said Matar, using the name of an Israeli military base at the site. “What prevented that outcome was perseverance.”
Back in 2006, settlers were infuriated upon hearing that Israel’s government was in talks with the US to build a Palestinian children’s hospital on the land, said Hagit Ofran, a director at Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, especially as the US Agency for International Development was funding a “peace park” at the base of the hill.
The mayor of Beit Sahour urged the US Consulate to pressure Israel to begin hospital construction, while settlers began weekly demonstrations at the site calling on Israel to quash the project, according to consulate files obtained through WikiLeaks.
It was “interesting” that settlers had “no religious, legal, or ... security claim to that land,” wrote consulate staffer Matt Fuller at the time, in an email he shared with the AP. “They just don’t want the Palestinians to have it — and for a hospital no less — a hospital that would mean fewer permits for entry to Jerusalem for treatment.”
The hospital was never built. The site was converted into a military base after the Netanyahu government came to power in 2009. From there, settlers quickly established a foothold by creating makeshift cultural center at the site, putting on lectures, readings and exhibits
Speaking to the AP, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister at the time the hospital was under discussion, said that was the tipping point.
“Once it is military installation, it is easier than to change its status into a new outpost, a new settlement and so on,” he said.
Olmert said Netanyahu — who has served as prime minister nearly uninterrupted since then — was “committed to entirely different political directions from the ones that I had,” he said. “They didn’t think about cooperation with the Palestinians.”
Palestinians say the land is theirs
The continued legalization of settlements and spiking settler violence — which rose by 27 percent in 2025, according to Israel’s military — have cemented a fearful status quo for West Bank Palestinians.
The land now home to Yatziv was originally owned by Palestinians from Beit Sahour, said the town’s mayor, Elias Isseid.
“These lands have been owned by families from Beit Sahour since ancient times,” he said.
Isseid worries more land loss is to come. Yatziv is the latest in a line of Israeli settlements to pop up around Beit Sahour, all of which are connected by a main highway that runs to Jerusalem without entering Palestinian villages. The new settlement “poses a great danger to our children, our families,” he said.
A bypass road, complete with a new yellow gate, climbs up to Yatziv. The peace park stands empty.
