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Hariri Sees New Page in Lebanon Ties with Syria

Batoul Wehbe | Al-Manar | December 20, 2009

20/12/2009 Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Sunday he agreed with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on practical steps to open up “new horizons” in ties between the two Arab neighbors. Hariri was speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Syria that marked the end to nearly five years of animosity between Damascus and the political alliance led by Hariri.

“We want to open new horizons between the two countries,” Hariri told a news conference at the Lebanese embassy in Damascus. He said his three rounds of “excellent” talks with the Syrian leader were frank and based on clarity. “There will be serious steps from our side and on the part of President Bashar al-Assad to translate this cordial and serious relationship into steps on the ground in several fields,” Hariri said, without giving details.

Arab diplomatic sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that Hariri carried with him to Damascus a program based on “openness and reconciliation.” The sources added that the premier seeks to set up “transparent relations” between the two countries.

Hariri had also told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat before his visit to Damascus that “there was mutual willingness to overcome the past and look to the future.” The PM stressed that he “spontaneously” decided to visit Damascus when he accepted to form the government. Syria “is the closest state to Lebanon and its only neighbor,” Hariri told al-Hayat.

On Saturday, Assad gave Hariri a warm welcome at the capital’s Tishrin palace. They met for three hours, stressing the need to set up “privileged and strategic ties” between the two countries to overcome years of tensions, officials said.

The meeting helped “dispel the past (differences),” Syrian presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban told reporters after the talks. “There is no doubt that the ice has been broken between the two sides,” she said.

Shaaban also noted that Syria “broke with protocol” by inviting Hariri to stay at the Tishrin guest palace which is usually reserved for visiting monarchs and heads of state. The two leaders discussed plans to mark their porous common border as well as “the challenges facing the two countries due to Israel’s occupation of Arab land,” Shaaban added.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said Assad and Hariri discussed how to “bolster bilateral cooperation” and “ways of surmounting the negative effects which marred” ties in the past. It quoted Hariri as saying his government was determined “to establish real and strategic ties with Syria,” while Assad spoke of the need to promote “privileged and strategic ties between the two countries.”

December 20, 2009 - Posted by | Solidarity and Activism

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