Assad, Iran's Acting FM Discuss Lebanese Crisis
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran's interim Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi agreed on Monday that the troubles of the Middle East should be solved internally by the region's countries, Syria's official news agency SANA reported.
Salehi arrived in Damascus on Sunday to discuss the Lebanese political crisis with Syrian officials.
The two men discussed "the latest regional developments" and international efforts to "find solutions to challenges facing countries of the region," SANA said after the meeting.
SANA reported Assad and Salehi emphasized "the importance that solutions come from inside these countries according to their peoples' interests to help maintain their security and stability".
External efforts to mediate Lebanon's political quagmire have yielded little, with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar all failing.
A national unity government led by Saudi- and Western-backed caretaker prime minister Saad Hariri collapsed on January 12 when 11 ministers from the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbullah and its allies resigned.
The walkout capped a long-running dispute over a U.N.-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, Saad's father.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said he expects the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon to implicate members of his armed group in the Hariri murder and has warned of grave repercussions.
Nasrallah has vowed to include all parties in a Hizbullah-led government, but both he and Hariri refuse to serve under each other.
Former prime minister Najib Miqati has put himself forward as a compromise candidate to try to form a government.
On Sunday night, Salehi held talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/2287 |