Rajji promises to 'do the necessary' for Lebanese missing in Syria

BEIRUT — Foreign Minister Joe Rajji said Tuesday that “the case of the Lebanese missing in Syria is his priority” and pledged to “do everything necessary” to resolve the matter during a meeting with a delegation from the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The delegation included the commission’s acting president, Ziad Achour, and members Wadad Halawani, Carmen Abou Jaoudeh and Adib Nehmeh.

Some of the victims of enforced disappearance have been missing since the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), while others disappeared in the years that followed. The fall of the Syrian regime in December 2024 rekindled hopes among families of finding their loved ones, dead or alive. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam raised the issue during his visit to Damascus in mid-April.

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The delegation briefed Rajji on the commission’s work and the challenges it faces, emphasizing the need for support from the government, the Foreign Ministry and relevant ministries to help it fulfill its mandate: uncovering the fate of Lebanese missing in both Syria and Lebanon. The exact number of missing persons remains unclear and needs to be verified.

The delegation members stressed the importance of “decoupling this humanitarian case from politics” and demanded that “the commission be represented on the Lebanese-Syrian joint committee that is to be formed to address all pending issues between the two countries.”

For his part, the foreign minister said he would “remove any diplomatic or political obstacles that may hinder progress on this file.” He told the commission he was preparing a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad Hassan el-Chibani, to whom he would submit the case file currently being drafted by the Justice Ministry. He noted that the Syrian side “has expressed full willingness to help shed light on the fate of the missing Lebanese.”

Raggi promet de « faire le nécessaire » sur la question des Libanais disparus en Syrie