Western diplomatic sources and Lebanese security sources have told The National that the truce agreed between Lebanon's Defence Minister Michel Menassa and Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra might be short-lived if a long-lasting solution at the Syrian-Lebanese border is not found.
It comes after the two countries agreed a ceasefire after two days of clashes between Syrian and Lebanese forces and local Lebanese armed groups along the border, in which at least nine people have died since Sunday. The dead included eight Syrian soldiers and a 15-year-old Lebanese boy who was killed in Syrian bombing in the border village of Qasr.
The defence ministries said they had agreed on continuing contact between their army intelligence directorates to prevent more deterioration on the border. "Despite the ceasefire and high-level diplomatic negotiations, the underlying issues remain unresolved, leaving the door open for renewed conflict at the Lebanon-Syria border," a Western diplomatic source told The National, adding that the international community is aware that the northern border remains a pressing challenge.
A Lebanese security source said: "There is a truce. It doesn't mean that clashes won't erupt again. But for now, a truce has been reached".
Syria’s new government, led by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) group – which had links to Al Qaeda and Al Nusra Front – has vowed to crack down on Hezbollah-linked smugglers in a bid to secure the border with Lebanon. The move has severed Hezbollah's traditional smuggling routes, and sparked fighting with local tribes involved in the business.
The clashes on the boundary between the Syrian governorate of Homs and the province of Hermel, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, began with the killing of four members of the new Syrian defence troops in a border ambush on Sunday, sources told The National. Hermel is a Hezbollah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley, where clans involved in illicit activity operate.
The escalation has marred recent efforts by the two governments to improve relations since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad. The clashes pit troops led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham against fighters aligned with Hezbollah, as well as the Lebanese army, who the authorities in Beirut say has been instructed to respond. HTS, a group formerly linked with Al Qaeda, took power in Damascus after the fall of the Assad regime in December.
Lebanon has been among a constellation of Arab countries that have been engaged in diplomacy with the new order in Damascus, in a bid to establish new ground rules between Syria and its neighbours, after decades of volatile relations under the Iran-backed former regime.
The ceasefire deal announced late on Monday stipulates “enhanced co-ordination and co-operation between the two sides”, according to the Syrian Ministry of Defence.
Earlier on Monday Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said on X that he had asked Lebanon's foreign minister, who was in Brussels for a donors conference on Syria, to contact Syrian officials to resolve the problem “and prevent further escalation”.
“What is happening along the eastern and north-eastern border cannot continue and we will not accept that it continues,” he said. But he also said that “I have given my orders to the Lebanese army to retaliate against the source of fire”.
Hussein Al Hajj Hassan, a member of Hezbollah and a Lebanese MP, accused fighters from the Syrian side of crossing into Lebanese territory and attacking border villages. His constituency is the north-eastern Baalbek-Hermel province, which has borne the brunt of the clashes. He said Hezbollah “has no relation to what happened on the border”.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah is the only non-state group allowed to carry arms in Lebanon, a legacy of previous support from Syria's former Assad regime when it was the dominant power in Lebanon after the end of Lebanon's civil war in 1990.
Hezbollah and other Shiite militias provided support for Mr Al Assad, which enabled him to crush a 2011 protest against his rule and survive the ensuing Syrian civil war until he was deposed last year.
Since the downfall of Mr Al Assad, troops with the new order under HTS have clashed with Hezbollah several times at the border, with the authorities in Damascus saying some smuggling rings Hezbollah used to supply weapons from Iran still operate in the area.
