BEIRUT — Lebanon and Syria formally established diplomatic relations Wednesday for the first time since they won their independence in the 1940s, a historic move that was overshadowed by a bombing in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli in which 18 people were killed.
The morning rush-hour attack on a commuter bus came as a reminder of the threat of instability still hanging over Lebanon even as a series of peace initiatives in the country and the region appear to be unwinding tensions on multiple fronts.
One of those initiatives is the diplomatic rapprochement aimed at defusing longstanding friction between the two countries.
Syria has played a central role in the turbulence afflicting its smaller neighbor for much of its history, and Syrian troops occupied Lebanon for 29 years, beginning in 1976.
The decision to exchange ambassadors was announced in Damascus during a landmark summit between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon’s new president, Michel Suleiman. It was the first visit to Syria by a top Lebanese leader since Syrian troops were driven from Lebanon in 2005 by the Cedar Revolution.
It also signaled the growing regional influence of Syria, which in recent months has shrugged off U.S.-led efforts to isolate it diplomatically by embracing a peace deal in Lebanon and opening peace talks with Israel.
Washington welcomed the moves.
“We have long stood for the normalization of relations between Syria and Lebanon on the basis of equality and respect for Lebanese sovereignty,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Washington.
Syria’s retreat from Lebanon was followed by a string of high-profile bombings and assassinations of prominent Lebanese figures, which members of the ruling March 14 coalition blamed on a campaign by Damascus to destabilize and ultimately control Lebanon.
Lebanon also blames Syria for the February 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, which triggered the Cedar Revolution uprising against Syria’s occupation.
But Wednesday’s bombing in Tripoli did not fit the pattern of previous attacks, and Syria has now thrown its support behind a new Lebanese government composed of all the country’s rival factions — including the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah movement — that was formed in the wake of a peace deal reached in May.
Tripoli is a mostly Sunni city that has in recent weeks witnessed sectarian clashes between Sunnis and minority Alawites, an offshoot Shiite sect aligned with Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian factions.
What took them so long
Syria, whose territory included Lebanon until the two countries were given independence by France, had long refused to establish relations with its neighbor, saying that the countries are too close to need formal ties. Lebanon had called for diplomatic relations for some time, suspecting that Syria’s refusal masked ambitions to eventually reincorporate Lebanon into Syria.
