Beirut warns of “pro-Assad cells” active in Lebanese territory
Informed by Damascus and Arab and international media outlets, Lebanese authorities are doubling their surveillance efforts. However, “gaps” in the border between the two countries are hindering the mission. According to the UN, since Assad's fall, 69,000 Syrians, mainly Alawites, have fled to Lebanon, although the data are partial and difficult to verify.
Beirut (AsiaNews) - How many Syrians remain in Lebanon illegally? The figures remain rather vague, considering the continuing flow of migrants in both directions between Syria and Lebanon.
According to Maroun Khawli, general coordinator of the National Campaign for the Repatriation of Syrian Displaced Persons, ‘despite the increase in repatriations, the networks for the illegal entry of Syrians into Lebanon remain active’.
According to the official interviewed by AsiaNews, Syrians continue to return to Lebanon through numerous illegal crossings along a still undefined border, often carrying contraband goods and products.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's previous regime in December 2024, the UN estimates that 69,000 Syrians, mostly Alawites fleeing violence, have entered Lebanon. However, the actual number could be much higher. Some sources speak of a figure that could reach 150,000 illegal entries.
On the other hand, more than 400,000 Syrian refugees, out of a total of 1.5 million who entered since 2011, are said to have returned to Syria. Since population movements do not always take place through border crossings, Lebanon and international organisations are forced to rely on empirical assessments and approximate figures in this area.
Humanitarian reasons
The illegal return of thousands of Syrians to Lebanon is mainly due to economic reasons. Many do so because they have not found work in Syria, nor have they been able to repair their damaged or destroyed homes.
Others regularly make the journey from Lebanon to Syria to receive subsidies from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Damascus turns a blind eye to this “trafficking”, which provides it with much-needed foreign currency.
After all, the Lebanese authorities know that illegal arrivals occur whenever sectarian unrest breaks out in the neighbouring country, as happened recently in Tartus, Latakia and Banias, cities on the Syrian coast with an Alawite majority, where pro-Assad armed groups had infiltrated the demonstrators. In such cases, the Lebanese army decides not to intervene for humanitarian reasons.
However, the army and General Security are now showing greater vigilance in identifying the activities of former Syrian army officers hostile to the new leadership in Lebanon, who are protected by Hezbollah and other pro-Assad groups.
This increased vigilance is due to warnings from Damascus and information reported in the press. However, the Lebanese authorities have made it clear to their Syrian counterparts that, in the absence of a crime in flagrante delicto, they cannot arrest people on Lebanese territory on the basis of mere assumptions.
At the same time, before any arrest and, even more so, before any extradition, Damascus must issue arrest warrants in due form.
That said, a few weeks ago, Al-Jazeera and CNN reported on the existence of subversive cells of pro-Assad Syrian officers in Lebanon. The US network thus broadcast, with supporting images and recordings, information attesting to the presence in Beirut of a Syrian military officer, Bassam Hassan, who is allegedly involved in the disappearance of American journalist Austin Tice.
The killing of one of these former officers, Ghassan Naassan Al-Soukhni, found dead in the Kfar Yassine region (Mount Lebanon), served to prove that the latter had indeed found refuge in the Land of the Cedars. The senior military officer in question was known for his ties to Maher al-Assad, brother of the deposed president.
In addition, the army arrested twelve former Syrian officers in possession of their identity cards, who were attempting to cross the northern border of Lebanon into Syria illegally. It emerged that these officers had already appeared before the security commissions of the new Syrian regime to regularise their situation.
They were handed over to the security services in Damascus, who accused them of wanting to set up bases for attacks against Syrian security forces in the Tell Kalakh region.
Hermel: the “Imam Ali complex”
Finally, a fourth piece of information presented as evidence of the existence of pro-Assad “subversive cells” in Lebanon turned out to be false. Yesterday, the army searched and inspected the “Imam Ali complex” in Hermel (northern Beka'a), which is home to predominantly Shiite families.
A military statement subsequently indicated that no arrests were made and no suspicious weapons were found. Ninety per cent of the camp's residents are naturalised Lebanese Shiites who fled the new regime for fear of violence from Sunni groups.
However, searches carried out in the predominantly Alawite neighbourhood of Baal Mohsen in Tripoli led to the arrest of four people and the seizure of a large quantity of weapons, explosives and drugs.
Nevertheless, this result is far from justifying the alarmism that has gripped the Lebanese media, especially after the dissemination of information by Al Jazeera. Instead, they show that the uncertainty surrounding the situation and the impossibility of fully controlling the borders and the movement of people between Lebanon and Syria are unhealthy and that the two countries must strengthen their cooperation to remedy the situation.
This restoration must begin with the repatriation to Syria of several hundred members of Hay'at Tahrir el-Sham (HTS), currently in power and detained in Lebanon on the basis of mere assumptions, linked to files “fabricated” by Hezbollah.
However, agreement on this issue is slow to materialise, as Lebanese parties are making the release of prisoners conditional on obtaining information about Lebanese nationals kidnapped by the deposed regime and long considered missing.
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