Lebanon’s justice ministry said on Tuesday that Lebanese and Syrian committees met for the first time in Damascus to discuss sensitive issues, including the fate of Lebanese missing in Syrian prisons and Syrians held in Lebanon, with a second round of talks planned in Beirut in three weeks.
The meeting marked the start of formal direct channels between Beirut and Damascus to address long-standing disputes such as border demarcation, smuggling, and detainees.
The process began earlier this month when Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri hosted a Syrian delegation in Beirut that included former ministers and the head of Syria’s national body for missing and forcibly disappeared persons. The talks focused on detainees, missing persons, and measures to curb cross-border smuggling.
Following that meeting, the two sides agreed to form committees, which convened their first session in Damascus on Monday, the Lebanese justice minister announced.
Mitri said his meeting with the Syrian delegation was “flexible and open,” adding it was not about building trust but “strengthening it,” especially after recent remarks by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa signaling readiness to turn the page and reset relations with Lebanon.
He said discussions covered four main issues: detainees and missing persons, the return of Syrian refugees, border control and demarcation, and a review of bilateral agreements. Priority, he added, was given to securing the frontier and curbing the smuggling of captagon, followed by resolving the cases of Syrian prisoners in Lebanon through a possible judicial treaty.
A week after the Beirut talks, the Lebanese judicial-security committee met its Syrian counterpart in Damascus. Lebanese Justice Minister Adel Nassar said Lebanon requested information about its citizens missing in Syria for decades, while Syria pressed for clarity on the status of Syrian inmates in Lebanon. Beirut proposed a legal framework that could enable prisoner transfers under a bilateral accord.
A Lebanese source involved in the Damascus meeting said the delegation handed Syrian officials a list citing the names of Lebanese who vanished in Syria years ago, while the Syrians shared names of their nationals with pending cases in Lebanon.
The source added that the Syrian side showed readiness to discuss border demarcation, a key demand in Lebanon, and said the first encounter was “an introductory meeting” that paved the way for further sessions.
