Bassil Meets Muallem, Jaafari on Sidelines of U.N. Meetings

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil held talks Thursday in New York with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem, in the presence of Syria's U.N. envoy Bashar al-Jaafari.

The meeting, on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the U.N. General Assembly, was held “at Bassil's request,” LBCI television reported.

The conferees “demonstrated the developments in Lebanon and Syria and the two ministers stressed that the ongoing relation between Lebanon and Syria is a state-to-state relation,” LBCI said.

The TV network added that the Syrian side agreed that the refugees should return to their country from Lebanon but noted that Syrian authorities need to make some internal arrangements before the displaced can return home.