Syrian embassy in Lebanon suspends services after Assad's relatives arrested from Beirut airport

Members of security forces of the newly formed Syrian government stand guard at a security checkpoint on the Syrian border with Lebanon. (AP photo)

The Embassy of Syria in Lebanon suspended its consular services on Saturday, a day after two relatives of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad were arrested at the Beirut airport with allegedly forged passports.

In another development, Lebanese authorities handed over dozens of Syrians — including former officers in the Syrian army under Assad — to the new Syrian authorities after they were caught illegally entering Lebanon, a war monitor and Lebanese officials were quoted as saying by AP.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday that 70 Syrians, including former army officers, were handed over by a Lebanese security delegation to the security forces of the new Syrian government, led by the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. The report was confirmed by three Lebanese judicial officials who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

On its official Facebook page, the Syrian embassy announced that consular work was suspended “until further notice” at the order of the Syrian foreign ministry. The announcement did not give a reason for the suspension.

However, two Lebanese security officials, who spoke to the news agency AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the suspension was ordered because the passports belonging to Assad’s relatives — the wife and daughter of one of his cousins — were believed to have been forged at the embassy.

HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has largely succeeded in calming fears within and outside of Syria that his group would unleash collective punishment against communities that supported Assad’s rule or attempt to impose strict Islamic law on the country’s religious minorities.

However, in recent days, sporadic clashes have broken out between the HTS-led security forces and pro-Assad armed groups. The country’s new security forces have launched a series of raids targeting officials affiliated with Assad and have set up checkpoints in areas with significant populations of the Alawite religious minority to which the former president belongs to search for weapons.

There have also been ongoing tensions and clashes in northeastern Syria between Kurdish-led forces and armed groups backed by Turkey. Many Kurds have viewed the new order in Damascus, which appears to have strengthened Turkey’s hand in Syria, with anxiety, AP reported.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters convened by Kurdish women’s groups participated in a demonstration in the northeastern city of Hasaka to demand women’s rights in the new Syria.

Perishan Ramadan, a participant from Hasaka, said the new government “is worse than Bashar” and that its leaders are Islamist extremists who “don’t accept any role for women.”

While the country’s new leaders have not attempted to impose Islamic dress or other conventions, it remains to be seen what role women will have in the new order and whether they will hold political or government positions.