Al-Shara: I Do Not Mind Sitting with Hezbollah at the Dialogue Table and We Will Not Intervene Militarily in Lebanon

SadaNews - Syrian President Ahmad Al-Shara emphasized on Sunday that Damascus intends nothing but good for the Lebanese and is ready to engage in dialogue with everyone.

President Al-Shara pointed to the deep bonds that connect his country with its neighbor Lebanon.

This was stated in an interview he conducted with Lebanese journalist Tony Khalifa for the "Al-Mashhad" channel from the Syrian capital, Damascus.

He said: "I do not mind sitting with Hezbollah at the dialogue table if it serves the interests of Syria and Lebanon in reaching a solution, despite the very significant Syrian wound resulting from Hezbollah's actions and crimes in Syria, but we do not want Lebanon to suffer what Syria has gone through, and I prefer dialogue even among adversaries, even during wars."

He added: "There is a great opportunity for political and sectarian agreement in Lebanon to emerge from the current situation, and we will not intervene militarily in Lebanon, and we are looking with international parties for solutions instead of exacerbating the problem."

Al-Shara attempted to interpret the background of the recent American statements made by President Donald Trump regarding the possibility of tasking the Syrian leadership with disarming Hezbollah.

In this regard, he said, "President Trump expressed his discomfort with what is currently happening in Lebanon and was discussing the content of his remarks about stopping the war, but the statement was taken as if the Syrian forces would enter Lebanon by tomorrow morning, which is a mistake."

He noted that Syria intends nothing but good for the Lebanese and is ready for dialogue with everyone, including Hezbollah.

Trump had renewed discussions about the possibility of Syria playing a role in confronting Hezbollah in Lebanon, stating that he talked to President Ahmad Al-Shara about this matter.

Trump said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France last week that he discussed the Hezbollah issue with Al-Shara, according to what Reuters reported.

This came a day after he stated to reporters that Syria might do a "better" job than Israel in facing Hezbollah.

This is not the first time Trump has raised the possibility of a Syrian role in Lebanon against Hezbollah, a proposition that raises particular sensitivities in Lebanon, where the Syrian military presence began in 1976 during the civil war, before ending with the withdrawal of Syrian forces in 2005.