Sharaa reportedly discussed Hezbollah weapons, refugees with Mikati in Damascus

The toppling of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, who had strong ties to Iran and Hezbollah, has crippled Hezbollah's ability to bounce back by cutting off a vital weapons-smuggling route through Syria.

Syria's new president and Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister met last month in Damascus and discussed the relations between the two countries. In the meeting, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa vowed that Syria will no longer allow the smuggling of weapons and money to Hezbollah, a local media report said.

The report, published Thursday in al-Akhbar, said al-Sharaa criticized Hezbollah and Iran for intervening in Syria's civil war. Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters to bolster Assad’s forces when the civil war broke out in 2011. Assad had long played a strategic role in Iran's "axis of resistance", particularly in facilitating the supply of weapons to Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.

Al-Sharaa told Lebanese PM Najib Mikati that Hezbollah and Iran must "reconsider their policies in the region," al-Akhbar said.

Apart from the weapons-smuggling, Mikati and al-Sharaa discussed the land border demarcation between the two countries, the fate of thousands of missing Lebanese who disappeared at the hands of Assad's troops, and the repatriation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon to Syria.

The new Syrian President demanded patience from Mikati for the demarcation and the repatriation of Syrians. He said all prisons have been emptied from prisoners and warned the Lebanese PM against "Islamic State group's attempts" to form cells in north Lebanon.