BEIRUT (AP) – Syria’s embassy in Lebanon suspended consular services on Saturday, a day after two relatives of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad were arrested at the Beirut airport with allegedly forged passports.
Also on Saturday, Lebanese authorities handed over dozens of Syrians – including former officers in the Syrian army under Assad – to the new Syrian authorities after they were caught illegally entering Lebanon, a war monitor and Lebanese officials said.
The embassy announced on its Facebook page that consular work was suspended “until further notice” at the order of the Syrian foreign ministry. The announcement did not give a reason for the suspension.
Two Lebanese security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said the suspension was ordered because the passports belonging to Assad’s relatives – the wife and daughter of one of his cousins – were believed to have been forged at the embassy.
Assad’s uncle, Rifaat Assad – who has been indicted in Switzerland on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity – had flown out the day before on his real passport and was not stopped, the officials said.
The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday that 70 Syrians, including former army officers, were handed over by a Lebanese security delegation to the security forces of the new Syrian government, led by the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. Three Lebanese judicial officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the report.
Regional countries have been quick to establish ties with Syria’s new rulers.
Delegations of Libyan and Bahraini officials arrived in Damascus on Saturday on official visits.
HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has largely succeeded in calming fears within and outside of Syria that his group would unleash collective punishment against communities that supported Assad’s rule or attempt to impose strict Islamic law on the country’s religious minorities.
