"FM Rajji says Syria ready to cooperate for land border demarcation"
This is the headline from an article dated 07/01/25 fro the Lebanese news site "Naharnet". The border between Lebanon and Syria has been unresolved back many decades including the time of the French Mandate. As the article notes the Lebanese Foreign MInister feels things can be resolved and notes:
"Rajji said Lebanon has received "secret documents" from France of a French demarcation of the Lebanese-Syrian border that would help the two countries demarcate their land borders."
The history is a tortured one to be sure full of promises made and broken by the French during their Mandate and promises made more or less clandestinely and broke by the British during their Mandate in Palestine etc. The two old colonial powers hold on their empires was ebbing but they still tried to cause problems for each other as much as possible in the Middle East as they jockeyed for influence and control. Much of the French and British archives of those times have only been release in the last several years. We still don't know what they may still be keeping hidden.
But at least this may be some tiny progress between the two and as the Foreign Minister also notes:
"The new Syrian administration recognizes Lebanon as an independent state, unlike previous administrations especially the Bashar al-Assad regime."
A border area that had been unresolved between the 2 countries has been an area known as Shebaa Farms. Israel has been occupying this area and refused to withdraw. UN Security Council Resolution 1701 is still in an incomplete state and part of that resolution is for the border between Syria and Lebanon to be demarcated. Perhaps now that can take place but I doubt, given the territorial expansionist behavior of Israel over the last many decades, that Israel will acknowledge or abide by the demarcation. Israel considers the area to be part of the Golan Heights which they illegally "annexed" in 1981by passing the Golan Heights Law which essentially declared indefinite Israeli control of the Golan Heights. It is not recognized by the UN and Resolution 497 passed the Security Council unanimously and it declared the move by Israel to be "null and void". However no enforcement mechanism has ever been enacted. But at least a longstanding point of contention between Lebanon and Syria can be resolved.
https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/313908-fm-rajji-says-syria-ready-to-cooperate-for-land-border-demarcation