HTS says Syria will not interfere 'negatively' in Lebanon

Syria will not "negatively" interfere in Lebanon's affairs, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) told a visiting delegation of Druze leaders on Sunday.

HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani) said Syria would respect its southern neighbour's sovereignty, as well as "the unity of its territories, the independence of its decisions and its security stability".

Sharaa, whose group overthrew former President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, was speaking to visiting Lebanese Druze chiefs Walid and Taymour Jumblatt as he continued attempts to normalise Syria's relations with its neighbours after more than 13 years of civil war.

"It will keep an equal distance from everyone" in Lebanon, he added, noting that Syria was "a source of fear and anxiety" in the country.

Syria and Lebanon's affairs have been heavily intertwined for decades, with Syrian forces occupying much of northern Lebanon between 1976 and 2005.

Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have flooded into Lebanon, seeking to escape the fighting.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who arrived in Damascus on Sunday at the head of a large delegation of MPs from his parliamentary bloc and Druze clerics, is the first Lebanese leader to meet Syria's new leadership.

The Druze in Syria have faced persecution from a variety of sources in recent years, including from Israel, the former Syrian government and armed rebel groups.

HTS, under their former name Jabhat al-Nusra, were responsible in 2015 for killing dozens of Druze in the village of Qalb Loze in Syria's northwestern Idlib governorate, in what was branded a sectarian attack by the former al-Qaeda affiliate.