Lebanese Army denies conducting reconnaissance flights over Syria

The Lebanese Army denied, in a statement on Sunday, reports that it conducted reconnaissance flights over Syria to monitor possible military movements at the border. Online information circulating in recent days claimed that “gangs” threatened to enter Lebanon and kidnap Lebanese soldiers, and reported that the army had flown over Syria to monitor these movements.

“Some media outlets and websites reported that the Lebanese Air Force is violating Syrian airspace in order to monitor military movements on the Syrian side in the border areas, in response to threats from armed Syrian groups to enter Lebanon and carry out security operations there. Army command clarifies that this information is entirely false,” the statement said. “Military units are monitoring the situation along the border and taking the necessary measures to control and secure it,” noting contacts and coordination with the Syrian authorities “to follow developments in the situation.”

After the rumors about Syrian groups, Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), who has made opposing the new Syrian regime his latest cause, wrote on X that “Lebanon is surrounded by extremist religious regimes, one wants a ‘Greater Israel’ and the other a ‘Greater Syria.’” “Our neighbors covet our land and others covet our decisions,” he added, expressing his desire for a “Greater Lebanon, moderate and diverse.”

Reports have circulated regularly, since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, about alleged Syrian ambitions to seize Lebanese territory, but these have been denied. At the end of March, the Lebanese and Syrian defense ministers met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and agreed to strengthen security and military coordination along their shared border, which is 330 kilometers long, known to be porous, and where various trafficking activities are common. They also signed an agreement in principle to demarcate the border. On April 14, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam traveled to Damascus, where he met the new Syrian president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, to discuss, among other things, border security. In February and March, sporadic clashes took place between clans, reportedly close to Hezbollah, and the new Syrian authorities near border towns.