In a visit, the first of its kind since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a high-level Syrian government delegation arrived in Beirut, including six ministers and a number of senior officials, to discuss a number of joint economic, service, and investment files between the two countries.
The Syrian delegation is headed by six ministers: Minister of Economy and Industry Muhammad Nidal al-Shaar, Minister of Agriculture Basil Hafez al-Suwaidan, Minister of Tourism Mazen al-Salhani, Minister of Education Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Turko, Minister of Transport Ya’arub Suleiman Badr, and Minister of Health Musab al-Ali.
The delegation also includes the head of the Civil Aviation Authority, the head of the Syrian Investment Authority, Ahmed Rawad Ramadan, and the CEO of the Syrian Petroleum Company, Youssef Qiblawi, along with a number of officials and representatives of Syrian government agencies.
The delegation is scheduled to hold expanded meetings in Beirut, headed by Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon, Tariq Mitri, and in the presence of Lebanese ministers and officials concerned with the files at hand.
The discussions will focus on economic and social aspects. Each Syrian minister will hold a bilateral meeting with his Lebanese counterpart, with the aim of consolidating cooperation memorandums, forming joint committees to follow up on the outstanding issues and developing practical mechanisms to address them.
In the same context, the members of the delegation are likely to hold a meeting with the President of the Republic, General Joseph Aoun, in conjunction with their participation in the “Lebanese-Syrian Business Forum” scheduled to be held before noon tomorrow at the “Phenicia” Hotel under the auspices of the President of the Republic.
The discussions will address the issue of Lebanese trucks crossing Syrian territory towards Arab countries, and ways to enhance bilateral coordination to control borders and combat smuggling, in addition to other investment and service files, while the sources denied that the discussions touched on the Syrian displacement file due to its complexities.
This visit is of exceptional importance because it represents a step to reactivate official communication between Beirut and Damascus, and open direct channels of cooperation between institutions and ministries in the two countries after a long period of diplomatic and official stagnation.
