Syria and Lebanon have long had a complicated relationship, with forces from each country intervening in the other over the years.United States President Donald Trump has made clear that he would like yet another intervention – making repeated comments in recent weeks calling for Syria to take the lead in disarming the pro-Iranian Lebanese group Hezbollah.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe Syrians have baulked at that idea, and the decision by Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani to include Lebanon’s parliament speaker, and key Hezbollah ally, Nabih Berri, among the officials he met during his trip to Beirut on Thursday, is another indication of Damascus’s position.Even with the Syrian government’s dislike for Hezbollah due to the latter’s military support for the former Syrian regime, it is clear that al-Shaibani’s boss, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has no appetite for a military adventure across the border.“A meeting with Berri signals a reversal from al-Shaibani’s visit last October, when he stayed away from the Shia leadership,” Nawar Hawach, the International Crisis Group’s senior Syria analyst, told Al Jazeera. “It shows that Damascus wants a working line to every Lebanese component, including the bloc closest to Hezbollah.”Troubled historyIf Trump had his way, Syria would be embarking on yet another chapter of its troubled relationship with its smaller neighbour, Lebanon. For decades, the relationship has been one where Syria either dominated or …
