I write to you from Beirut. The visit of Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani to Beirut is more than ceremonial and deeper than routine. It carries messages, meanings, and positive implications for relations between the two countries, and for reducing the level of tension and uncertainty in the region.
The first element of the visit's importance is that it comes at a difficult and sensitive time, when the region's alliances and policies are being reshaped at a regional level with strong and direct international intervention led by the United States.
Several elements of Al-Shaibani's visit to Beirut are of particular significance:
1 — It came after the US president publicly called — on multiple occasions — for Syrian intervention in Lebanon to succeed where Israel had failed, namely the disarming of Hezbollah. Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa's statements were clear, frank, and categorical in rejecting any desire or ability on Syria's part to intervene in Lebanese affairs or become entangled as it had been under the Syrian security apparatus of the Assad era, both father and son.
2 — The visit began at the door of parliament speaker Nabih Berri, one of the leading figures of Lebanon's Shia duo and the man regarded as the traditional "centre of balance" in the Lebanese political system.
3 — The meetings with the president of the republic and the prime minister were successful in terms of their outcomes. With the president, a formal invitation was extended to him to visit Damascus and meet President Al-Sharaa. With the prime minister, an agreement was reached to form a joint high committee, co-chaired by the Syrian and Lebanese sides, tasked with strengthening economic, commercial, political, and security matters.
4 — Al-Shaibani made a historically astute visit to Tripoli in northern Lebanon, the stronghold of the Sunni community linked by family and emotional ties to the people of Greater Syria. He was received warmly by the public and spiritually by Tripoli's Sunni Mufti. When asked whether he would meet any Hezbollah leadership — having already met Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and the heads of the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb party — he replied: "His programme for this visit does not include Hezbollah, but he does not rule out a meeting in the future if it would serve the interests of both countries."
The most important thing Al-Shaibani said, with skill and acumen, is that Damascus wants to establish its relationship with Beirut on the basis of official state-to-state relations, thereby closing the door on the matter of Damascus's ties with non-official forces.