A delegation from the Maronite group of the Our Lady of the Mountain Gathering visited Damascus on Friday, more than two weeks after the fall of the Assad government, which was overthrown by a rebel offensive led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Several Lebanese media outlets reported that this delegation included Fares Souhaid, former secretary-general of the March 14 movement, which is pro-Hariri and opposed to Assad, as well as former Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat.

Accompanied by journalist Riad Tok, the delegation visited the Maronite Archbishopric of Damascus and then the Umayyad Mosque.

"I salute the Our Lady of the Mountain Gathering and the bold initiative of Fares Souaid, who went to Damascus with a Lebanese interfaith delegation," said Nadim Gemayel, Kataeb MP from Beirut, on Friday evening.

This visit 'shows that we are also partners in the fall of Assad and the liberation of Syria," he added.

Gemayel praised "the generous gesture of Ahmad al-Sharaa who honored the memory of martyred President Bashir Gemayel and offered us his condolences," referring to his father, the Lebanese president assassinated in 1982, and the new leader of Syria.

"It is a sign that the deposed tyrant was an enemy of freedom in Lebanon and Syria, as he still is," Gemayel stated.