In a historic meeting, Syria's new de facto leader acknowledged the Syrian regime's role in the assassinations of prominent Lebanese figures like Kamal Jumblatt, Bashir Gemayel, and Rafiq Hariri. This candid admission comes as Lebanon, freed from decades of Syrian control, seeks to elect a new president and navigate a hopeful future.
The writer is author of ‘Black Wave’ and an FT contributing editor. In late December, influential Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt visited Damascus and sat down with Syria ’s new de facto ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa. As Jumblatt nodded, Sharaa spoke the unspoken, in what was one of the frankest exchanges between Syria n and Lebanese politicians in more than half a century.
“To the leader Walid Beyk, we say, may God have mercy on your father’s soul, the regime killed him,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the assassination of Kamal Jumblatt in 1977. The murder was widely blamed on Syria at the time, after Kamal stood in the way of then president Hafez al-Assad’s designs over Lebanon. Al-Sharaa’s sad litany continued: “To the Gemayel family we say, the regime killed Bashir Gemayel. To the Hariri family, we say, rest your father’s soul, the Syrian regime killed Rafiq Hariri.” President-elect Gemayel was assassinated in September 1982, as Damascus attempted to stem its losses in Lebanon in the wake of the Israeli invasion and the election of the pro-western, pro-Israeli politician. In February 2005, Hariri was killed after he defied Syria’s continued military occupation of Lebanon. Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Hafez’s son, the focus has understandably been on the elation and catharsis that Syrians are experiencing, mixed with the uncertainties of a still nebulous new dawn. But across the border, in Lebanon, the traumatic weight of decades of Syrian interference and control has also lifted, ushering in a new sense of possibility — just as Lebanon’s parliament attempts, for the 13th time in two years, to elect a new president on Thursday. Even after Syrian troops withdrew in April 2005, Damascus left behind a well-entrenched system, enforced by Hizbollah and Iran, which in turn upheld a corrupt political establishment that bankrupted Lebanon in 2019. For decades, Syria and then Iran had a chokehold on Lebanese politics and the ultimate say in who became president
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