Syria denies meeting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in Turkey: What to know
The Syrian government denied reports that Syrian officials met with Hezbollah representatives in Turkey, as relations between the two sides remain fraught with tensions mainly over the Lebanese group’s support for Assad’s forces against rebels during the Syrian civil war.
BEIRUT/ANKARA — Syria on Thursday denied reports of a secret meeting held between representatives of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and Syrian government officials in Turkey last month.
Reuters reported earlier in the day that Syrian officials from the intelligence directorate and Foreign Ministry had met with representatives of Hezbollah at least once in an undisclosed location in Turkey in September, which would have been the first known, direct meeting between the two sides since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
However, the Syrian Foreign Media Department, affiliated with the Ministry of Information, said “no such meeting took place,” adding in a post on X that these “claims are false.”
These claims are false. No such meeting took place. https://t.co/YzKPsS4g8O
— Syrian Response (@SyrianResponse) October 1, 2026
Citing two Syrian officials, a US official and a senior Lebanese security source close to Hezbollah, Reuters said on Thursday that Turkish security and intelligence agencies initiated the meeting as part of Ankara’s efforts to play a direct role in easing long-standing tensions between the two sides.
