Salam meets al-Sharaa in Syria, talks to tackle disappeared persons

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met Monday in Damascus with Syria's interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, accompanied by a Lebanese ministerial delegation comprising the ministers of foreign affairs, defense and interior.

The meeting was also attended by Syrian Defense Minister Asaad al-Shaibani.

Governmental sources told the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal that “the visit comes at a sensitive time to discuss a number of files, topped by the issue of those who disappeared in Syrian prisons, the file of agreements between the two countries, the issue of closing smuggling border crossings, the abolition of the Syrian-Lebanese council, the facilitation of the passage of trucks and exports from Lebanon to Arab countries, and the file of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon.”

The two sides will also discuss the formation of special committees to study all files and find suitable solutions, the sources added.

It is the first trip to Damascus by a senior Lebanese official since a new government was formed in Beirut in February, two months after an Islamist-led alliance ousted longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.

This visit is "key to correcting the course of ties between the two countries on the basis of mutual respect," a Lebanese official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

Beirut and Damascus have been seeking to improve ties since the overthrow of Assad, whose family dynasty commanded a decades-long tutelage over Lebanon and is accused of assassinating numerous Lebanese officials who expressed opposition to its rule.

The official said Monday's discussions were expected to include controlling and demarcating the porous, 330-kilometer shared border, as well as combatting smuggling.

Last month during a visit to Saudi Arabia, the Lebanese and Syrian defense ministers signed an agreement to address security and military threats along the border, after clashes left 10 dead.

Lebanon is expected to seek the new Syrian authorities' assistance on "the formation of a commission of inquiry into a large number of assassinations in Lebanon over which the former regime is accused," the official said.

Salam is also expected to raise "the return of Syrian refugees," the official added.

Lebanese authorities say the small, crisis-hit country hosts some 1.5 million Syrians who fled war in their country since 2011, while the U.N. refugee agency says it has registered some 750,000 of them.

Salam said Sunday he would also raise the issue of Lebanese nationals who were detained and disappeared in Syria's notorious prisons under the Assad dynasty's iron-fisted rule.

In January, former Lebanese premier Najib Mikati met with Sharaa, in the first visit by a Lebanese head of government to Damascus since Syria's civil war erupted.

In December, Sharaa said his country would not negatively interfere in Lebanon and would respect its neighbor's sovereignty.