Lebanese Foreign Minister Joe Rajji (left) meeting the French Ambassador to Lebanon, Hervé Magro, on May 8, 2025, at the ministry's headquarters. (Photo taken from the minister's X account)
The French ambassador to Lebanon, Hervé Magro, handed a series of documents and maps from the French archives to the Lebanese Foreign Minister Joe Rajji on Thursday, concerning the delimitation of the border between Lebanon and Syria. This comes as Prime Minister Nawaf Salam conducted a tour in the Bekaa and Baalbek regions, along this border earlier in the day.
In a post on X, the Lebanese minister stated that he had “received from the French ambassador to Lebanon, Hervé Magro, a copy of the documents and maps from the French archives concerning the border between Lebanon and Syria.”
“This handover follows an official request from Lebanon and a promise made by President Emmanuel Macron to President Joseph Aoun, during his last visit to Paris, to provide these documents that will assist Lebanon in the process of delimiting its land border with Syria,” he added.
'Too early to assess the significance of these documents'
A source within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told L’Orient-Le Jour that “it was still too early to assess the significance or probative value of these documents, which also include maps with different dates.” These materials will soon be submitted to the competent commission, in coordination with the Lebanese army, tasked with examining them within the context of the delimitation file, the source specified. According to the same source, the French side indicated that the archives, kept in Nantes, can be made available to the Lebanese authorities if needed.
Since Lebanon and Syria gained independence from the French mandate in 1943 and 1946 respectively, the border between the two countries has remained porous to this day. The delimitation of this border was never finalized under the Assad dictatorship between 1970 and 2024. Weapons, drugs, human beings, and goods trafficking remain common to this day, despite the arrival of the new Syrian authorities in power.
The handover of the French documents comes following a meeting in Paris between French President Emmanuel Macron and his Syrian interim counterpart Ahmad al-Sharaa, during which the Lebanese-Syrian border issue was discussed. The French president expressed his willingness to “facilitate” the opening of bilateral negotiations between Beirut and Damascus on the demarcation of their common border, which spans 330 km and remains porous, by offering “France's expertise, archives, and experience” in this regard.
The issue was discussed in late March in Paris during Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's visit to Élysée. The two leaders then held a joint video conference with President Sharaa, focusing on security along the Lebanese-Syrian border, the scene of recent clashes between Syrian forces and armed Lebanese clans. Nawaf Salam, however, traveled to Damascus last April 14, where he met with Sharaa to discuss, among other things, the delimitation of land and sea borders. Meanwhile, the Lebanese army patrols these border areas in certain places but has yet to fully control the entire zone, despite the installation of several watchtowers as part of a British donation a few years ago.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
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