Lebanon's Mikati set to meet Sharaa in Syria in wake of Aoun's election

Prime Minister Najib Mikati will become Lebanon's first premier to visit Syria in 15 years on Saturday, when he will head to Damascus to meet with new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Mikati will visit Syria in response to an invitation by Sharaa, the official National News Agency reported. Further details were not immediately available from either side. 

Sharaa led the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that toppled President Bashar al-Assad last month. Sharaa now leads a transitional administration in Syria.

The visit will be the first by a Lebanese premier to Syria since 2010 as successive leaders avoided Damascus during the Syrian civil war and given the polarization around toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Beirut. 

Why it matters: Issues of Islamist prisoners, border security and agreements from Assad's days are likely to come up.

Protests broke out in the northern city of Tripoli last week demanding the release of Islamists imprisoned in Lebanon during the Syrian civil war. They include Lebanese who fought with Syrian rebel groups and were arrested upon their return home. One of the most notable detainees is Sunni imam Ahmed al-Assir, who was arrested in 2015 after a deadly ambush against Lebanese soldiers by his supporters two years prior. Assir was a vocal supporter of the Syrian uprising and called for the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Tripoli has been the site of sectarian violence since the Lebanese civil war between Alawite and Sunni Muslim residents. The violence flared up again after the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Assad and his family are Alawite, while the Syrian rebels who fought the government are predominantly Sunni.

Lebanon moved to secure its border with Syria during December's rebel offensive, closing all but one crossing on Dec. 6, two days before the rebels took Damascus. Border security has been an issue since then. Last week, the Lebanese army said it clashed with unidentified Syrians while attempting to close an illegal border crossing. Syrian authorities restricted the entry of Lebanese following the incident, according to reports.

The two countries are major trading partners and Syria was one of Lebanon's second-largest export recipients in 2022, according to the World Bank. The Observatory of Economic Complexity calculated bilateral trade at around $487 million that year.

Mikati, a prominent telecom magnate before going into politics, was close to the Assad family but that relationship soured in the last decade as the regime in Damascus grew more isolated and came under sanctions. Mikati notably first served as prime minister for three months in 2005 after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The killing, which was widely blamed on Assad, prompted widespread protests in Lebanon that forced the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country.

Hezbollah was Assad’s closest ally in Lebanon and fought alongside his forces and against rebel groups such as HTS throughout the civil war. Hezbollah fighters withdrew from Syria in December during the rebel push toward Damascus.

Sharaa has pledged not to interfere in Lebanon. In a meeting with Lebanese Druze community leader Walid Jumblatt in Damascus late last month, Sharaa said that Syria’s new administration would not exert any "negative interference in Lebanon.”

Know more: On Thursday, the Lebanese Parliament elected former armed forces leader Gen. Joseph Aoun to be president, ending a more than two-year void in the office. Aoun vowed that the state would have exclusive authority over weapons in the country, though he did not mention Hezbollah specifically.

Mikati is currently serving as a caretaker prime minister, but is one of the leading contenders to head the next government if the parliament approves. On Monday, Aoun will meet with parliament to discuss the selection of a new prime minister. Mikati has expressed interest in continuing to serve, according to local reports.