President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently announced that the security of Ankara passes through Damascus and Beirut. It is no longer an issue of emotion and feelings of solidarity. Lebanon and Syria are national security matters. In Syria, Türkiye has a good level of security cooperation with the al-Sharaa government. The same cannot be said of Lebanon.
To start with, Lebanon went behind Türkiye’s back and demarcated the maritime border with the Greek Cypriot administration, which raised the ire of Ankara. Beirut did not inform Damascus and Ankara when it established its maritime boundary with Greek Cypriots, knowing it would affect their own negotiations in the highly contested Eastern Mediterranean area. Ankara also finds the deal unacceptable as it violates the rights of Turkish Cypriots on the island. Social media accounts circulated that Fidan had a tense conversation with the Lebanese prime minister on the sidelines of the Doha forum last year. Hence, the relationship is far from exemplary.
The attitude toward Israel is another issue regarding the current Lebanese government. Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri, in an interview, said that the Cabinet refused to file a complaint against Israel, though he urged them to do so. On the contrary, the government raised a complaint at the United Nations Security Council against Iran for interfering in its internal affairs.
According to Walid Jumblatt, the seasoned Lebanese Druze leader, some Lebanese in Washington are more Israeli than the Israelis. His media office rushed to clarify that he meant some researchers who work in American pro-Israel think tanks. However, anyone who follows Jumblatt sees that, like many others, he is very critical of the government. The Salam-Aoun is seen as compliant with Israel. Any Turkish discussion with the current government will likely fall on deaf ears.
Nevertheless, Türkiye can engage with Saudi Arabia on Lebanon. The Turkish-Saudi cooperation on Syria is an example of success. More than that, Syria represented a change in Türkiye’s relations with Saudi Arabia. Actually, it created an opportunity to improve the bilateral relations between the two actors.
During the Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia viewed Türkiye with suspicion. In that period, Saudi Arabia was deepening its relations with the United States and was warming up to Israel. However, Israel’s stubbornness and its refusal to offer any concessions to the Palestinians, and the brutal campaign of genocide that followed Oct. 7, led Saudi Arabia to change its attitude.
Saudi Arabia started seeing the need to cooperate with Türkiye to contain Israel’s aggressive expansionism. The Syrian revolution provided an opportunity to cement the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Türkiye. Though Türkiye supports Syria for security, Ankara made sure that Saudi Arabia plays an important diplomatic role. The first trip of President Ahmed al-Sharaa was to Riyadh. Both Saudi and Türkiye used all their diplomatic and political weight to entice U.S. President Donald Trump to remove Syria from the sanction blacklist. Both countries prevented the division of Syria as was schemed by the Israelis.
Türkiye has also played a very important role in Lebanon, which no one talks about. It prevented friction between Hezbollah and al-Sharaa and promoted stability in both countries. There were talks of Hezbollah harboring former Assad officers and plotting to destabilize the new regime. Türkiye skilfully neutralized this threat.
Last year, in December 2025, during the Quds conference, members of Hezbollah were invited to Türkiye. Since then, Türkiye has been moderating the relationship between al-Sharaa and Hezbollah. Initially, al-Sharaa demanded that the Lebanese government turn in Hezbollah operatives who committed crimes in Syria. This would have created a big problem internally for the Lebanese government and enforced divisions in the country. Later, al-Sharaa abandoned this demand, maybe due to the mediation of Türkiye. The relationship between the Syrian government and Hezbollah passes through Ankara to ensure that Lebanon does not pose a threat to Syria, and vice versa.
In the same way, Turkish-Saudi cooperation has saved Syria from the malicious schemes of Israel, and it can help Lebanon. Saudi Arabia is held in high standing by the different factions represented in the Lebanese Parliament and influences them. No president or prime minister is elected without the quiet acquiescence of Riyadh.
In addition to being divisive, the current government has also failed on several fronts. It failed to handle the issue of refugees properly. It failed to obtain a cease-fire or get the Israelis to pull out of the country. The bilateral negotiations it held in Washington have been described as a "surrender" to Tel Aviv, given the imbalance of leverage between the two parties. The government took a big risk with these negotiations. With all those impediments, this government seems to be living on borrowed time.
The country is witnessing intense social and political polarization. Internal chaos is likely to follow any real cease-fire. In this respect, Türkiye should work with Saudi Arabia to prevent Lebanon from falling into the abyss and help the country achieve stability and security. This will likely further deepen Saudi-Turkish relations. Lebanon is a national security issue to Türkiye, but the route to Beirut definitely passes through Riyadh.
