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Tue, Jul 07 2010 |
According to the Syrian state-run news agency SANA, Assad and Hariri resumed their talks on Monday, “expressing satisfaction over the steps that were achieved in developing relations between the two countries and affirming their determination to continue boosting these ties to meet the aspirations of the two brotherly peoples in both countries.”
The two sides also discussed means for using the agreements signed between Syria and Lebanon to create a network of mutual interests for the two countries and their peoples, SANA said.
Assad held a luncheon in honor of Hariri and visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, during which they discussed ties between the three countries and means to bolster them “to reflect positively on regional issues, particularly the Palestinian cause.”
On Sunday, Syria and Lebanon signed economic agreements, signaling an improvement in relations, but did not resolve a border demarcation issue that the Lebanese government views as central to its sovereignty.
The deals, signed by Hariri with his counterpart Mohammad Naji al-Otri in the Syrian capital, were the first since the 2005 assassination in Beirut of his father Rafik Hariri.
The elder Hariri was a member of Parliament and a former premier whose killing heralded international pressure that forced Syria to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon.
The agreements included investment protection, pharmaceutical products, shipping, tourism and taxation. Hariri said a committee set up by the two countries to demarcate the border “has to begin its work and finish it as soon as possible.”
Otri said cooperation between Syria and its smaller neighbor had to extend to security. Damascus had hinted it was concerned about infiltration by Islamist militants from Lebanon after a 2008 bombing targeted a security compound in Damascus.
Syria agreed with Lebanon in 2008 to set the border, two years after a UN resolution recommended Syria work on the issue. Damascus has since said its technical teams were busy finishing border demarcation with Jordan and that a small Lebanese region occupied by Israel and bordering Syria complicated any demarcation.
A UN probe into Hariri’s killing implicated Lebanese and Syrian security officials. Syria denied any involvement and the younger Hariri has visited Syria several times since he became premier last year.
An international tribunal into the killing has yet to indict any suspects. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said if Syrian involvement was proven, Damascus would try the suspect in Syria for treason. Moallem voiced hope Sunday that visits between Lebanese and Syrian officials would increase in the future, adding that Assad’s trip to Lebanon “will take place at the appropriate time.”
Moallem denied that the demarcation of the Lebanese-Syrian border was facing difficulties, saying that committees have been formed in Lebanon and Syria over this matter. Lebanese Minister of State Jean Oghassapian said Monday that the Lebanese ministerial delegation that headed to Syria informed Damascus of Lebanon’s readiness to demarcate the border.
He told LBC television that the Lebanese side had devised a comprehensive plan of border crossings to be discussed with the Syrians “because it is unacceptable that the crossings remain in the current state that they are in today.”
Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said Monday that Syria does not recognize the existence of missing Lebanese in Syrian jails.
He was commenting on a report published Monday by Al-Liwaa newspaper which claimed that Syria admitted it was holding 800 missing Lebanese. Najjar said the issue was tackled during talks on Sunday between the Syrian and Lebanese ministers.
“Reports that the Syrian side admitted the existence of a number of Lebanese detainees are not true,” Najjar told Future News television channel.
He acknowledged, however, that the Syrian side raised the issue of 1,000 missing Syrians in Lebanon.
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