Beirut: The head of Beirut's civil defence was detained by Syrian intelligence on Friday after travelling through the country on his way to Egypt for four hours.
The Palestine Branch of Syria's intelligence service detained and questioned Walid Hashash, 57, the director-general of Civil Defence in the Lebanese capital.
Since Lebanese migration into Syria resumed at the end of 2021, this incident hasn't happened before. As a precaution against COVID-19, the Syrian government forbade Lebanese from entering Syria in March 2020.
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According to Arab News, one of the most well-known Civil Defence volunteers in Beirut, Youssef Mallah, Hashash had left on a motorbike trip to Egypt via Jordan, passing through Syria. He was travelling with 20 friends.
According to Mallah, who added that Hashash was detained when the group passed through a Syrian security checkpoint, he had also secured 15 days of vacation time for the journey.
The circumstances of the arrest are unknown, but it was later asserted that misidentification may have occurred, according to Mallah.
The incident was reported to concerned parties in Lebanon by one of Hashash's relatives who was a member of the group.
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The release of Hashash, who was released hours after his arrest and returned to Beirut, was reportedly secured through official contact with the Syrian authorities, according to reports on social media.
According to Hashash's friends, the head of Beirut Civil Defence is not affiliated with any political party or group.
The Hashash family anxiously awaited his return for hours out of concern that he might have been mistreated while being questioned.
The Palestine Branch's arrests and detentions have drawn attention because the unit has been connected to a number of disappearances that have occurred in Syrian territory since the 1980s.
The communication to secure Hashash's release was handled by Brig. Gen. Raymond Khattar, director general of the Lebanese Civil Defence, and interim interior minister Bassam Mawlawi.
After arriving in Beirut, Hashash informed Arab News that he was in good health and had received respect from the Syrian authorities.
Sanad Party leader MP Ashraf Rifi stated: "Hashash is a sportsman and has a hobby of riding motorcycles and often makes trips with the group that was accompanying him to Egypt."
The MP noted that there have been increasing calls for the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between Lebanon and Syria.
"We don't know the specifics of why Hashash was detained. The majority of the information we have suggests he has no connection to politics.
Despite the positive vibes permeating the area, Rifi continued, the Syrian regime was "still adopting the same old methods."
2011 saw a vote in Lebanon to expel Syria from the Arab League, despite Hezbollah and its allies objecting to the action.
Beirut has not yet taken any official action to resume relations with Damascus, aside from security coordination, which had been interrupted by the civil war, even though Syrian ties with nations in the region are improving.
The Amal Movement, Hezbollah's ally, stated a few days ago that the resumption of Syrian membership in the Arab League is an opportunity to improve relations between Lebanon and Syria through dialogue and remove "imaginary obstacles" to settle a number of issues, most notably the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Walid Bukhari, the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, met with the interior minister on Friday as part of his ongoing political tour of the nation.
The minister referred to Bukhari's mediation efforts as a spark that accelerated the selection of a new president for Lebanon.Bukhari also met with lawmakers from the Tajaddod bloc, which includes Michel Moawad, a candidate for president in the opposition.
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A day earlier, Bukhari had met with Suleiman Frangieh, a Hezbollah candidate and close ally of Syria.
Moawad claimed that Saudi Arabia's position had become clear following the meeting. It holds that the choice of who will serve as president is a Lebanese sovereign decision and that the country's citizens are free to follow any course they please and are therefore accountable for their decision.
"Saudi Arabia seeks to establish rules for this region on the basis of state sovereignty, and all the developments in the region solidify our insistence that Lebanon should not be outside this momentum, growth, and stability," the MP continued.
The battle is between two projects, not between two people, according to Moawad, who stated that his bloc will oppose "any candidate imposed by the opposition project that brought us to our current situation, with all of our strength."