Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced the signing of the agreement to establish the joint Lebanese-Syrian Higher Committee, with the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic, Asaad Al-Shaibani, in a step aimed at reorganizing relations between Beirut and Damascus on the basis of official cooperation between the two countries, far from any ambiguous formulas or non-institutional paths.
Salam said, in a post on the “X” platform, that the signing of the agreement comes “with the aim of strengthening bilateral relations between Lebanon and Syria, and establishing them on a basis of cooperation and coordination from state to state, in a way that achieves the common interests of our two countries,” based on “the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, and good neighborliness.”
Salam added: “Yesterday, I signed with the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic, His Excellency Brother Asaad Al-Shaibani, the agreement to establish the joint Lebanese-Syrian Higher Committee. Congratulations to our two brotherly peoples.”
This step comes at a very important time at the level of Lebanese-Syrian relations, after many years of political, security and economic interactions, and the accompanying thorny files that left direct impacts on the two countries, from the borders and crossings, to the file of displaced Syrians, trade exchange, security coordination, and the demarcation of official cooperation frameworks between the two governments.
The agreement carries a clear political significance, as it confirms the desire of Beirut and Damascus to move the relationship from the stage of fragmented dealing with the outstanding files to the stage of direct institutional cooperation, thus placing the joint files on a clear official table, and giving them a framework capable of follow-up, accountability, and implementation.
The phrase “from state to state” that Salam used is of particular importance, because it reflects a Lebanese tendency to reset the relationship with Syria within the limits of sovereignty and mutual respect, especially since the relationship between the two countries has always been one of the most sensitive issues inside Lebanon, due to political divisions over its nature, borders, and the role of each party in it.
The Joint Higher Committee, if activated in practice, would constitute a platform for discussing vital issues between the two countries, most notably border control, regulating transit movement, addressing the issue of displaced persons, economic cooperation, facilitating trade exchange, and following up on outstanding security and judicial issues, within official mechanisms that prevent these files from remaining subject to diligence or circumstantial solutions.
The agreement also comes in light of a new phase that Syria is witnessing after the recent political transformations, and at a time when Lebanon seeks to establish an approach based on protecting its national interests on the one hand, and openness to the necessary cooperation with Damascus on the other hand, based on the reality of geography, common interests, and the direct connection between the stability of the two countries.
Thus, the agreement to establish the joint Lebanese-Syrian Higher Committee appears to be more than just a protocol step, as it may constitute an entry point for rebuilding a balanced official relationship between Beirut and Damascus, based on mutual sovereignty, good neighbourliness, and transforming contentious files from a source of tension into a space for negotiation, organization and cooperation.
