PARIS — The anxieties of an unexpected landing in war-ravaged Syria were compounded for passengers on an Air France flight when they were asked by the crew if they couldn’t possibly, you know, come up with some cash to help out with the refueling.

Passengers on Air France Flight 562 were headed from Paris to Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday, but the religious and ethnic tensions of the civil war in Syria have spilled over into Lebanon, too. Unrest around Beirut’s airport made it impossible to land, Air France said on Friday. The crew sought permission to divert to Amman, Jordan, but lacked the fuel to make it safely, so ended up in Damascus. (As if the Syrian capital were safer.)

Air France stopped flying to Damascus in March as fighting escalated in Syria, and Paris and Damascus are not exactly on good terms these days, with France one of the most vocal countries calling for President Bashar al-Assad and his government to step down and face charges of war crimes.

France pulled its ambassador from Damascus in March, and in a reflection of the current state of relations, the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, visiting a refugee camp for Syrians on the Turkish border, said on Friday: “The Syrian regime should be smashed fast. After hearing the refugees and their account of the massacres of the regime, Mr. Bashar al-Assad doesn’t deserve to be on this earth.”