Report: Suleiman to Meet Mansour over Syria Remarks

President Michel Suleiman is expected to hold talks with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour to ask him about his recent statements over Syria at the Arab Foreign Ministers meeting, media reports said on Friday.

“Suleiman will discuss the matter with Mansour, although he believes he had good intentions,” Baabda Palace sources told al-Mustaqbal newspaper.

Mansour called in his speech as he was preparing to hand over the chairmanship of the Arab Ministerial Council to Egypt on Wednesday for scrapping a decision to suspend the membership of Syria from the Arab League.

The minister's statement drew the rejection of several officials locally including Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

According to the sources, the president considers that the FM should have tackled his stance with him and Miqati before stating it.

The sources pointed out that Suleiman called on the premier to reiterate the government's stance concerning the dissociation policy that was stated by the Baabda Declaration.

Meanwhile, An Nahar newspaper reported that Miqati sent a letter on Thursday to Mansour.

However, the minister denied the report.

Despite the denial, sources close to Miqati told LBCI TV that the PM sent the letter to Mansour through diplomatic channels.

"Any denial by him is useless," the sources said.

On Thursday, the FM down played criticism on his speech, saying that he “carefully” chose his words as he is keen to preserve Lebanon's best interest.

The Arab League suspended Syria in November 2011 as a sharp rebuke for Assad's leadership over its brutal crackdown on demonstrators seeking to topple his regime.

It said at the time the suspension would apply until Assad implemented an Arab deal to end violence against protesters.

A year later, the League recognized the Syrian National Coalition headed by Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib as the "legitimate representative and main interlocutor with the Arab League.