Damascus refuses diplomatic ties with Beirut and Siniora's visit
The Foreign Affairs Minister said an exchange of ambassadors would be "premature" while the US Ambassador drew attention to the desire of the Syrian government to intimidate Lebanon.
Damascus (AsiaNews) Tension is brewing between Syria and Lebanon. Damascus has officially declared that "at the moment" it does not want diplomatic ties with Beirut and President Bachar el Assad seems to have refused to meet the Lebanese Premier, Fouad Siniora.
The Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister, Walid Moallem, yesterday defined as "premature" an exchange of ambassadors with Beirut, maintaining that bilateral agreements between the two countries "go well beyond diplomatic ties".
For his part, Nasri Khoury, secretary of the central committee of the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council, confirmed to AsiaNews that the Syrian president has refused to meet the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, at least not before the attitude of the government of Beirut with an anti-Syrian majority is clarified. Khoury, after meeting the deputy President, Farouk El Chareh, said: "Syria wants a solution to all the problems that have emerged in recent months, shattering the fraternal climate reigning between the two neighbouring countries." Ties, according to him, should be reestablished at all levels and not only on the diplomatic front, because there were other unresolved matters of not little importance, like economic, political and security links. Khoury said vice-President El Chareh maintained that before the visit to Syria of the Lebanese Premier, it was necessary to take time to resolve outstanding issues, "without hurrying and with plenty of caution", in order to reestablish confidence between the two governments, after the rupture last year "that caused much harm and ruined what the two peoples had built over several years".
The US Ambassador, Jeffrey Feltman, described the approach of Damascus as "another cynical plan of the Syrian government to interfere and to intimidate Lebanon". Damascus moves include a military court decision to arraign the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Telecommunications Minister, Marwan Hamade, and the journalist Fares Khashan.
Journalist sources in Damascus said the attitude of the Syrian government can be traced back to its diplomatic triumph during the meeting of Arab League on 28 March: it managed to have the issue of ties between Lebanon and Syria dropped from the final statement of the meeting. This had been requested by the 14 March faction, led by the son of Rafic Hariri, MP Saad.
The fact that General Lahoud, a filo-Syrian, is still holding onto the presidency of the Republic, despite calls from parliament for his resignation, is also judged as another positive sign.
Besides, there is anticipation for the visit of the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to Syria, planned before the trip of the French President Chirac to Egypt.
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