Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to make first visit to Syria since taking office
PM is expected to raise the issue of Lebanese missing in Syria's prison system
Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is scheduled to visit Syria on Monday in his first visit to the neighbouring country since he assumed office in January.
Mr Salam is expected to raise the issue of the hundreds of Lebanese who went missing in Syria's prison system during the more than 50-year of rule by the Assad family. The comes amid hope of a new, positive state in Syria-Lebanon relations after the often turbulent rule of the Assad regime.
Former president Bashar Al Assad was toppled in December, led by forces headed by Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara.
'I hope to return with good news about those missing in Syria, and I will update the Lebanese people on this issue tomorrow,' Mr Salam said in a speech before his departure.
The talks would also touch on the contentious issue of the roughly 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The country, home to one of the world's biggest refugee populations, has sought a comprehensive resolution to the issue of refugee returns.
Beirut has long argued that, especially given the economic crisis in Lebanon, it is unable to deal with more than a million Syrian refugees. With the fall of the Assad regime, those calls have grown louder.
Mr Salam's predecessor Najib Mikati visited Syria in January to discuss the issue of smuggling with the new leadership in Damascus – around a month before deadly clashes broke on the Syria-Lebanon border between armed factions along the porous frontier. Those clashes have ended and a ceasefire agreed, but the border is yet to be demarcated.
The country's defence ministers met in Saudi Arabia last month, where an agreement was signed by both sides to demarcate the border and form 'legal and specialised committees'. They had been due to meet in Damascus but the meeting was postponed as Syria appointed a new government.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also met with Mr Al Shara last month in Cairo where they agreed to better secure the border between the two countries.
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