Syria's al-Sharaa meets Lebanese PM in bid to improve long-fraught ties

By Tala Ramadan

(Reuters) -Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa met Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Damascus on Saturday in a bid to improve long-fraught ties, with the pair focusing on strengthening their shared border.

The trip was the first by a head of government to Syria since Bashar al-Assad was toppled by a sweeping rebel offensive on Dec. 8, and the first visit by a Lebanese premier to neighbouring Syria in 15 years.

Ties between Damascus and Beirut have often been fraught since they became independent states in the 1940s.

The countries agreed to work together to secure their land borders and delineate their shared land and sea borders as a matter of priority, Mikati said following the meeting.

"At the top of the list of priorities is the demarcation of the land and sea borders between Lebanon and Syria" and securing the border to prevent illegal smuggling, he said

It has also become "urgent" to address the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and have them return home, according to a statement by his office.

Nearly 800,000 Syrians are registered as refugees in Lebanon, but officials estimate the number to be much higher and say they place a massive burden on Lebanese public services.

Al-Sharaa also named the border as his top priority, and said the two leaders had discussed Syrian deposits in Lebanese banks, which have been inaccessible due to a five-year financial crisis in Lebanon.

"We hope that the Lebanese people will abandon the mentality of the previous Syrian relationship in Lebanon and the negative relations that followed," Sharaa added, saying there was now an "opportunity to build a positive relationship."

For much of the Assad family's five decades in power, Syria held significant influence over Lebanon, maintaining a military presence there for 29 years until 2005 in the face of widespread opposition from many Lebanese.

The Iran-backed Lebanese Shi'ite Islamist group Hezbollah played a major part in propping up toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during Syria's civil war, fighting the Sunni Islamist insurgents who toppled him.

In 2014, as war raged in Syria, Syrian Islamist rebels took Lebanese soldiers captive from the porous border area between the two countries, executing some of them.

Mikati was accompanied on his visit by Lebanon's foreign minister Abdullah Bou Habib, the head of Lebanon's general security agency, which is responsible for border management, and the head of Lebanon's military intelligence.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said following his election on Thursday that there was a historic opportunity for "serious and equitable dialogue" with Syria.

Sharaa congratulated Aoun on assuming the presidency.

(Reporting by Tala Ramadan in Dubai and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Conor Humphries)