Syria will no longer exert "negative interference in Lebanon at all -- it respects Lebanon's sovereignty, the unity of its territories, the independence of its decisions and its security stability," AFP reported Sharaa telling visiting Druze chiefs Walid and Taymur Jumblatt.

According to AFP, Walid Jumblatt is the first Lebanese figure to meet Sharaa since his militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel factions launched a lightning offensive last month, seizing Damascus on December 8 and ousting longtime ruler Bashar Al-Assad.

Syria "will stay at equal distance from all" in Lebanon, AFP reported Sharaa as saying, who acknowledged that Syria has been a "source of fear and anxiety" for the country, 

Jumblatt, long a fierce critic of Assad and his father Hafez who ruled Syria before him, arrived in Damascus Sunday at the head of a delegation of lawmakers from his parliamentary bloc and religious figures from Lebanon's Druze minority, AFP reported.

He met with Jolani at the presidential palace, where he congratulated the new Syrian leader who was wearing a suit and tie.

"We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years," AP reported Jumblatt as saying.

He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations "will return to normal."

HTS has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many Western governments, including the United States. However, it has recently sought to moderate its rhetoric and vowed to protect Syria's religious and ethnic minorities.

Jumblatt accuses the Syrian authorities of having assassinated his father in 1977 during Lebanon's civil war.

Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, according to AP.

Numerous other assassinations have been blamed on the Assad family's government over the decades.

The Syrian army entered Lebanon in 1976 as part of an Arab force that was supposed to put an end to the country's civil war, which began a year earlier.

Instead, it became the dominant military and political force, looming over all aspects of Lebanese life.

Syrian forces only quit Lebanon in 2005 after enormous pressure following the assassination of former prime minister Hariri, a killing attributed to Damascus and its ally Hezbollah.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating the assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia, AP reported. Hezbollah denied involvement in the massive Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, which killed Hariri and 21 others.

"We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people," AP reported Jumblatt as saying.