Al-Shibani made the remarks during his first official visit to Lebanon since U.S. President Donald Trump publicly suggested that Syrian forces could play a role in confronting Hezbollah inside Lebanon. The minister held talks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a political ally of Hezbollah.

According to Lebanon’s state news agency, Al-Shibani said the “Hezbollah file” was not discussed during his meetings with Lebanese officials. He added, however, that Syria would be prepared to meet the group if circumstances and national interests required, although the agency did not provide further details.

A statement issued by the Lebanese presidency said Aoun and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa shared the objective of preserving stability in both neighboring countries. According to the statement, Al-Sharaa assured the Lebanese president that Syria would not interfere in Lebanon’s internal political affairs.

Relations between Syria’s current leadership and Hezbollah have undergone a significant transformation since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in 2024. The former rebel factions now governing Syria fought Hezbollah for years while the Lebanese group deployed fighters in support of Assad’s government during Syria’s civil war.

Since assuming power, Al-Sharaa’s administration has sought to balance regional relationships while focusing on rebuilding a country devastated by more than a decade of conflict. Syria has also largely remained outside the broader confrontation involving the United States, Israel and Iran.

Last month, Trump said he had discussed Hezbollah with Al-Sharaa, suggesting Israel should allow Syrian forces to confront the Lebanese armed group instead. The remarks came after Trump criticized Israel over civilian casualties in Lebanon during its conflict with Hezbollah.

Al-Sharaa subsequently rejected speculation that Syrian troops could enter Lebanon, describing reports of any planned Syrian military deployment as unfounded, according to Syrian state media.

Reuters reported in March that the United States had encouraged Syria to consider deploying forces to eastern Lebanon to assist efforts aimed at disarming Hezbollah. However, Damascus was said to be reluctant because of concerns that such a move could draw Syria into a wider regional conflict and inflame sectarian tensions in both countries.

Trump’s special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, later dismissed reports that Washington had urged Damascus to send troops into Lebanon, calling those claims false and inaccurate.

Syria maintained a dominant political and military presence in Lebanon for nearly three decades after deploying troops during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war. Syrian forces remained in the country until 2005, when they withdrew following widespread domestic and international pressure after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Any renewed Syrian military involvement in Lebanon would carry significant political and sectarian sensitivities, given the complex religious composition of both countries and the legacy of Syria’s previous role in Lebanese affairs.

The tribunal named four Hezbollah members wanted over the killing…

Lebanon’s Rafik al-Hariri was assassinated in 2005. Here are some details about him, his death, and its impact ahead of a verdict by a U.N. backed tribunal on Friday.

Who was Rafik Al-Hariri?

Hariri served as prime minister of Lebanon five times following the 1975-90 civil war. A multi-billionaire who made his fortune in construction in Saudi Arabia, he was the dominant Sunni Muslim politician in Lebanon’s sectarian system.

He became prime minister for the first time in 1992, a rare case of a Lebanese leader who had not fought in the war. He led efforts to rebuild Beirut, particularly the downtown area.

A close friend of the late French president Jacques Chirac, Hariri was known for his international contacts. He was a Saudi passport holder and seen as a symbol of Saudi influence in the post-war years during which Lebanon was dominated by Syria.

The Assasination

On Feb. 14, 2005, Hariri got into his car after visiting the Café de l’Etoile by parliament, where he served as an MP. As his motorcade passed along the seafront corniche, a truck bomb tore through his vehicle, leaving a massive crater and ripping the facades of the surrounding buildings.

Twenty-one people were killed in addition to Hariri by the blast outside the St. George Hotel. The victims included killed Hariri’s bodyguards, pedestrians and the former economy minister Bassil Fleihan.

Tensions ahead of his death

In the year before his assassination, Hariri had been embroiled in a row over the extension of the term of pro-Syria President Emile Lahoud. Under Syrian pressure, the constitution was amended to allow the three-year extension. Hariri had opposed the move but eventually signed the amendment.

In September, 2004, a U.N. Security Council resolution put pressure on Syria over its role in Lebanon. It called for a free and fair presidential election, the withdrawal of all foreign forces, and for the disbandment of armed groups in the country, which included the pro-Damascus Hezbollah.

In October, Hariri quit as prime minister.

The turmoil in Lebanon was set against a backdrop of upheaval in the region, where the power balance had been turned on its head by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

This set the stage for an escalation of rivalry between Shi’ite Iran and its allies on the one hand, including Syria, and U.S.-allied, Sunni-led Gulf Arab states on the other.

The Impact

His assassination ignited the “Cedar Revolution”, mass protests against the Syrian presence in Lebanon. Under growing international pressure, Syria withdrew its troops in April.

Lebanon was reshaped.

Hariri’s son, Saad, led a coalition of anti-Syrian parties known as March 14, which was backed by Western states and Saudi Arabia. Syria’s Lebanese allies, including the Shi’ite Hezbollah, gathered into a rival alliance called March 8. A sectarian divide emerged between Sunnis and Shi’ites.

Lebanon’s two main Christian Maronite leaders, Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea, both returned to political life: Aoun returned from exile and Geagea was released from jail.

The March 14 alliance won a parliamentary majority in June.

Several years of political conflict ensued between March 14 and March 8, much of it focused on the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons. The tribunal into the Hariri killing was also a point of conflict.

The tension culminated in a brief eruption of civil conflict in 2008 during which Hezbollah took over Beirut.

The Investigation

Initially headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, an international investigation got underway in June, 2005. By October, it had issued a report implicating high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese officials. Syria always denied any involvement.

In August, four Lebanese generals who were pillars of the Syrian-dominated order were arrested at the request of Mehlis. They were released nearly four years later without charge after the tribunal said there was not sufficient evidence to indict them. They always denied any role.

Mehlis was replaced in early 2006. The investigation moved slowly. Several key personnel resigned.

Saad al-Hariri, who had blamed Syria for his father’s death, retracted his accusation against Damascus in 2010.

In 2011, the tribunal named four Hezbollah members wanted over the killing. The indictment said they were linked to the attack largely by circumstantial evidence gleaned from phone records. A fifth member of Hezbollah was indicted in 2012.

Hezbollah dismissed the indictment, saying it contained no proof of what it said were fabricated accusations. One of the original four suspects, senior Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine, was killed in Syria in 2016.