Syria's presidency dispatched an envoy to Lebanon on Monday to congratulate newly-elected President Michel Aoun, the first such official visit in six years, according to Agence France Presse. Speaking after meeting Aoun, Syria's Minister of Presidential Affairs Mansour Azzam said Assad's message included his hope for a "new era which we hope will bring good things, stability and security for the brotherly nation of Lebanon."
The trip is the first by a Syrian official to Lebanon since 2010, when Assad and then-Saudi King Abdullah visited the country in a bid to tamp rising
political tensions. It is also the first since Syria's civil war erupted in March 2011, with protests against Assad's government. Aoun is allied with Hezbollah, which backs Assad, while newly-appointed Prime Minister Saad Hariri is fiercely opposed to the Syrian president.