Lebanese Delegation Visits Syria, Sparking Debate About ‘Normalization with Damascus’

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (C-R) meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib (C-L) in Damascus on February 8, 2023. (Photo by SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (C-R) meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib (C-L) in Damascus on February 8, 2023. (Photo by SANA / AFP)
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Lebanese Delegation Visits Syria, Sparking Debate About ‘Normalization with Damascus’

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (C-R) meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib (C-L) in Damascus on February 8, 2023. (Photo by SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (C-R) meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib (C-L) in Damascus on February 8, 2023. (Photo by SANA / AFP)

An official visit by a Lebanese ministerial delegation to Damascus stirred a debate between those who said the trip normalized relations with the regime and others who considered it a "duty" after the devastating earthquake that recently struck Türkiye and Syria.

On Tuesday, Lebanese rescue workers were also dispatched to Syria to assist local teams searching for survivors.

The ministerial delegation headed to Damascus at the request of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. It held several meetings with Syrian officials on humanitarian affairs and the repercussions of the devastating earthquake that struck several areas in Syria.

The delegation was headed by the caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Abdallah Bou Habib. It included caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transportation Ali Hamieh, the Caretaker Minister of Social Affairs, Hector Hajjar, caretaker Minister of Agriculture Abbas Hajj Hassan and senior advisers and officials from the four ministries.

They met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad.

The delegation conveyed to Assad the condolences and solidarity of Mikati and the Lebanese cabinet.

They discussed measures and decisions taken by the Lebanese government to provide assistance to Syria and coordinate with relief organizations. They also announced that Lebanon was willing to open airports and seaports to receive aid that comes to Syria from any country or destination.

Assad thanked the delegation for their support and the measures the Lebanese government took to provide and facilitate aid dispatch to Syria.

The visit sparked criticism among those opposing the Syrian regime, considering it an unjustified step towards normalizing relations, indicating that aid could have been sent without an official meeting with the regime.

The pro-Syrian regime parties said, however, that the visit was a "duty" towards Syria and its people after the disaster.

Lebanese MP Ibrahim Mneimneh wondered if the delegation's visit aimed to normalize ties with the Assad regime or to show support to the Syrian people and provide aid.

On his Twitter account, Mneimneh drew question marks on the purpose behind visiting the presidential palace, adding: "Wasn't it more useful to send aid and support directly to the affected areas? Is there anyone seeking to exploit the suffering for regional political agendas?"

But the Hezbollah bloc issued a statement expressing solidarity and support with the people in Syria and Türkiye.

It called on all the states, governments, and international and humanitarian organizations to immediately provide aid to save those who remain trapped under the rubble, rescue the injured, pull the casualties and shelter the homeless.

The statement pointed out that Syria and Türkiye deserve to be supported by all Arab and Islamic countries.



US Envoy: Syria’s Government and Kurds Still at Odds over Merging Forces after Latest Talks

Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa (R) receives US Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack, at the presidential palace in Damascus on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALkasem / AFP)
Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa (R) receives US Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack, at the presidential palace in Damascus on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALkasem / AFP)
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US Envoy: Syria’s Government and Kurds Still at Odds over Merging Forces after Latest Talks

Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa (R) receives US Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack, at the presidential palace in Damascus on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALkasem / AFP)
Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa (R) receives US Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack, at the presidential palace in Damascus on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALkasem / AFP)

A US envoy said Wednesday that Syria’s central government and the Kurds remain at odds over plans on merging their forces after the latest round of talks, a persistent obstacle as the new authorities in Damascus struggle to consolidate control after the country's yearslong civil war.

US Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack, who is also a special envoy to Syria, told The Associated Press after meetings in Damascus, the Syrian capital, that there are still significant differences between the sides. Barrack held talks with Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led and US backed Syrian Democratic Forces, and Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

The development comes after a move by the Trump administration took effect this week, revoking a terrorism designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham organization, which was behind a lightning offensive last December that ousted Syria's longtime autocrat Bashar Assad.

Revoking the designation was part of a broader US engagement with al-Sharaa's new, transitional government.

In early March, the HTS signed a landmark deal with the SDF, a Kurdish-led force that had fought alongside US troops against the militant ISIS group and which controls much of northeastern Syria.

Under that deal, the SDF forces would merge with the new Syrian national army. The agreement, which is supposed be implemented by the end of the year, would also bring all border crossings with Iraq and Türkiye, airports and oil fields in the northeast under the central government’s control. They are now controlled by the SDF.

Detention centers housing thousands of ISIS militants, now guarded by the SDF, would also come under government control.

However, the agreement left the details vague, and progress on implementation has been slow. A major sticking point has been whether the SDF would remain as a cohesive unit in the new army — which the Syrian Kurds are pushing for — or whether the force would be dissolved and its members individually absorbed into the new military.

Barrack said that is still “a big issue” between the two sides.

‘Baby steps’

“I don’t think there’s a breakthrough,” Barrack said after Wednesday’s meetings. “I think these things happen in baby steps, because it’s built on trust, commitment and understanding."

He added that "for two parties that have been apart for a while and maybe an adversarial relationship for a while, they have to build that trust step by step.”

Also, Turkish-backed factions affiliated with the new Syrian government have over the years clashed with the SDF, which Türkiye considers a terrorist group because of its association with the Kurdish separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which had waged a decades-long insurgency within Türkiye before recently announcing it would lay down its weapons.

The United States also considers the PKK a terrorist group but is allied with the SDF.

Barrack said that though “we’re not there” yet, Damascus had “done a great job" in presenting options for the SDF to consider.

"I hope they will and I hope they’ll do it quickly,” he said.

From skepticism to trust

A key turning point for Syria came when US President Donald Trump met with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May and announced that Washington would lift decades of sanctions, imposed over Assad's government.

Trump took steps to do so after their meeting and subsequently, the US moved to remove the terrorist designation from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The US played a key role in brokering the deal announced in March between al-Sharaa's government and the SDF and has urged the Syrian Kurdish authorities to integrate with Damascus.

Barrack said Washington has “complete confidence in the Syrian government and the new Syrian government’s military,” while the SDF has been a “valuable partner” in the fight against ISIS and that the US “wants to make sure that they have an opportunity ... to integrate into the new government in a respectful way.”

The US has begun scaling down the number of troops it has stationed in Syria — there are about 1,300 US forces now — but Barrack said Washington is in “no hurry” to pull out completely.

Prospects of Syria-Israel ties

In the interview with the AP, Barrack also downplayed reports of possible breakthroughs in talks on normalizing ties between Syria and Israel.

“My feeling of what’s happening in the neighborhood is that it should happen, and it’ll happen like unwrapping an onion, slowly ... as the region builds trust with each other,” he said without elaborating.

Since Assad’s fall, Israel has seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria bordering the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and has launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. Israeli soldiers have also raided Syrian towns outside of the border zone and detained people who they said were militants, sometimes clashing with locals.

Israeli officials have said they are taking the measures to guard their border against another cross-border attack like the one launched by the Palestinian Hamas group on Oct. 7, 2023 in southern Israel that triggered the latest war in the Gaza Strip.