Lebanon Chairs Arab League Ministerial Council, Calls for Solution to Syrian Crisis

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour called on Wednesday for a solution to the Syrian crisis that is affecting Lebanon as he chaired the Arab League Ministerial Council that opened its session in Cairo.

Mansour took over the chairmanship of the 138th session for a six-month period from Kuwait’s deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah.

“We are suffering from the negative repercussions of the events in Syria … It is a national duty and in the interest of Arabs to resolve the situation there,” he said.

He told Arab Foreign Ministers that Lebanon will seek to exert strong efforts with the other Arab countries to resolve Syria’s crisis.

He also thanked Arab countries for their continued support of Lebanon in confronting Israel and reconstructing Lebanon following the 2006 Israeli aggression on the country.

During a cabinet session held at Baabda Palace, President Michel Suleiman called for consolidating the policy of distancing Lebanon from the Syrian crisis during Lebanon’s chairmanship of the Council.

Mansour became the third Lebanese Foreign Minister to chair such a session after Mahmoud Hammoud’s chairmanship between 2002 and 2003 and that of Fares Boueiz in 1991-1992.

During the meetings, the Lebanese delegation will be represented by Lebanon’s ambassador to Egypt and the envoy to the Arab League Khaled Ziade.

Media reports said last week that some Lebanese officials had expressed fears that Lebanon’s chairmanship would harm the policy that the country has adopted since the eruption of the Syrian revolution in March 2011.

Lebanon has been distancing itself from the uprising in Syria which started as peaceful demonstrations against the Assad regime but turned into a bloody crackdown that has so far led to more than 25,000 deaths.

Several other important issues are on the session’s agenda such as the Palestinian cause, ways to activate the Arab peace initiative, Arab solidarity with Lebanon and the occupied Golan Heights in Syria and Iran’s occupation of three islands claimed by the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf.