Syria’s president moves to normalize ties with Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon – The president of Syria ordered his government Tuesday to establish formal diplomatic relations with Lebanon, in a move that could pave the way for normalizing ties between the two countries after decades of political tangles.

President Bashar Assad issued a decree calling for the establishment of Syria’s first diplomatic mission in Lebanon, a small, mountainous country carved out of the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire and long dominated by its larger neighbor.

Assad promised to open an embassy previously, but he rarely has followed through with anything formal. Establishing a Syrian mission in Beirut might mark a turning point if it leads to more transparency in the long-troubled relations between the two countries, analysts said.

“This draws a historical line,” said Sami Moubayed, a Damascus-based analyst and journalist. “This is a new era.”

The decree did not establish a timetable. But a Syrian diplomatic source told the Los Angeles Times that the foreign ministers of the two countries were scheduled to meet in Damascus this week to work out a mechanism for establishing embassies in each other’s capital by year’s end. The source spoke on condition of anonymity.

Many Lebanese doubt Syria’s motives. Those within the pro-U.S. March 14 coalition are suspicious of any move by Syria, which has strong ties to the Shiite militia Hezbollah and other political parties in Lebanon.

While leaders of the March 14 camp welcomed the decision, they said important issues remained unresolved, including the fate of Lebanese prisoners believed to have been locked up in Syrian jails.

Damascus for months has promised Western leaders that it would open such an embassy in a move aimed at breaking Syria’s international isolation. But a diplomatic mission alone won’t fix all the problems between the two countries, said Oussama Safa, director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a Beirut think tank.

“It remains to be seen whether this entails real change in Syrian attitudes and not just window dressing,” he said. “Establishing an embassy is good. But who will the ambassador be? Are the Syrians going to use diplomatic channels in their relations with Lebanon?”

Syria and Lebanon have had a rocky and complicated relationship. Some people have never recognized the partitioning of the Ottoman region called Greater Syria into two nations.

Syria, with five times the population and 18 times the land area of Lebanon, has secretly and overtly exercised its political and economic power over its neighbor for decades.