Beirut: A lot has happened in just a year on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border. A lightning offensive by Islamist insurgents in Syria toppled longtime autocrat Bashar Assad and brought a new government in place in Damascus.
In Lebanon, a bruising war with Israel dealt a serious blow to Hezbollah — the Iran-backed and Assad-allied Shiite Lebanese militant group that had until recently been a powerful force in the Middle East — and a US-negotiated deal has brought a fragile ceasefire.
Still, even after the fall of the 54-year Assad family rule, relations between Beirut and Damascus remain tense — as they have been for decades past, with Syria long failing to treat its smaller neighbour as a sovereign nation.
Recent skirmishes along the border have killed and wounded several people, both fighters and civilians, including a four-year-old Lebanese girl.
Beirut and Damascus have somewhat coordinated on border security, but attempts to reset political relations have been slow. Despite visits to Syria by two heads of Lebanon’s government, no Syrian official has visited Lebanon.
Here is what’s behind the complicated relations.
A coldness that goes way back
Many Syrians have resented Hezbollah for wading into Syria’s civil war in defence of Assad’s government. Assad’s fall sent them home, but many Lebanese now fear cross-border attacks by Syria’s Islamic militants.
There are new restrictions on Lebanese entering Syria, and Lebanon has maintained tough restrictions on Syrians entering Lebanon.
The Lebanese also fear that Damascus could try to bring Lebanon under a new Syrian tutelage.
Syrians have long seen Lebanon as a staging ground for anti-Syria activities, including hosting opposition figures before Hafez Assad — Bashar Assad’s father — ascended to power in a bloodless 1970 coup.
In 1976, Assad senior sent his troops to Lebanon, allegedly to bring peace as Lebanon was hurtling into a civil war that lasted
until 1990. Once that ended, Syrian forces — much like a colonial power — remained in Lebanon for another 15 years.
Turbulent times
It took until 2008 for the two countries to agree to open diplomatic missions, marking Syria’s first official recognition of Lebanon as an independent state since it gained independence from France in 1943.
The move came after the 2005 truck-bombing assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that many blamed on Damascus.
Two months later, Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon under international pressure, ending 29 years of near-complete domination of its neighbour.
When Syria’s own civil war erupted in 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled across the border, making crisis-hit
Lebanon the host of the highest per capita population of refugees in the world. Once in Lebanon, the refugees complained about discrimination, including curfews for Syrian citizens in
some areas.