Syrian national Ahmad Dunya, who was collaborating with former affiliates of the Bashar Al-Assad regime plotting to destabilize the new Ahmad al-Sharaa regime, was arrested in Lebanon on Friday.
Since December 2025, Syrian and Lebanese officials have engaged in discussion over the status of over 200 exiled members of the Assad regime who fled to Lebanon. These talks have occurred in light of unveiled plots spearheaded by Assad’s billionaire cousin Rami Makhlouf and former head of military intelligence Kamal Hassan to finance Alawite militant groups in Lebanon and Syria, seeking to foment uprisings against the al-Sharaa government.
Syria has not issued a formal extradition request, yet the role of former officers of the Assad regime and pro-Assad factions in Lebanon and the Syrian coast remains a delicate cross-border concern.
Reuters reports that Dunya was a key conduit for Makhlouf and his schemes by extensively funneling funding from al-Assad and Makhlouf in Moscow to pro-Assad fighters and has skimmed off money from these transfers. It is likely that other pro-Assad financial intermediaries continue to operate within Lebanon.
Information surrounding the charges leading to Dunya’s arrest and whether he would be extradited to Syria has yet to be released.
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