FPM delegation travels to Syria to meet with Assad regime officials

BEIRUT — A delegation from the Free Patriotic Movement traveled to Damascus on Thursday where it held talks with officials of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. The visit comes following comments from FPM’s head Gebran Bassil, who recently said he was ready to go to Damascus on an official visit to discuss the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Here’s what we know:

    • According to some analysts, Bassil’s party is visiting the Assad regime to seek support ahead of next October’s presidential election in which many expect Bassil to be a major candidate; however, the FPM leader, who is also President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, has not indicated whether or not he will seek the presidency.

    • According to a statement released today from FPM, the delegation was led by its deputy president and the former minister Tarek al-Khatib, in response to an invitation from the deputy secretary-general of the Syrian Baath party, Hilal Hilal, with whom a meeting took place.

    • “Discussions focused on the need to strengthen relations between the two countries and the two parties affirmed their unity in the face of the common challenges that threaten the Lebanese and Syrian populations on the politico-economic level,” the statement said.

    • The delegation was also received by the Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister Faisal Mokdad, who expressed “the friendship of Syria, its people and its leaders, towards the Lebanese President Michel Aoun and the leader of the FPM Gebran Bassil.” The minister also praised “Bassil’s firm national positions, despite the pressures he is under on the local and international scene.”

    • On Jan. 12, a delegation from FPM visited the Syrian Embassy in Lebanon.

    • The FPM, which was founded by Aoun, was a fierce opponent of the Syrian regime during the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s, before the party turned around and moved politically closer to Damascus after its former head Michel Aoun visited Syria in 2008.

    • Relations between Lebanon and Syria have been a sensitive issue that has divided both the political class and the population in Lebanon. Several Lebanese ministers visited the Syrian capital in recent years, on personal rather than official visits, before members of Hassan Diab’s government made formal visits there. Hassan Diab’s government served from January to August 2020. It resigned in the wake of the Beirut port blast. However, most members of the cabinet kept serving as caretaker ministers until the formation of the current government led by Najib Mikati in September 2021.

    • On Wednesday, Lebanon signed an electricity deal with Jordan and Syria that would supply Lebanon with an extra two hours of electricity per day.