Hariri Meets Davutoglu: No One in Lebanon Can Eliminate the Other
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed on Wednesday the need for the whole of Lebanon to come under the control of the state and army.
He said: “No one in Lebanon can eliminate the other and we are all Lebanese and bound to work together.”
He made his statement during his trip to Turkey where he met with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
The former premier added: “Some sides are demanding the establishment of an arms-free Beirut and I say that the whole of Lebanon should come under the state and army control.”
Addressing the crisis in Syria and its agreement on an Arab deal to send observers to the country, Hariri noted: “The signing of the protocol was accompanied with an escalation in killings against anti-regime protesters.”
He explained that when Syria signed the protocol, it agreed to the Arab initiative, which calls on it to halt the violence against protesters and implement reform.
These demands have not been met yet, he remarked.
For his part, Davutoglu said that the killing of anti-regime protestors in Syria in light of its signing of the Arab deal is "unacceptable".
"Even after signing the protocol, many people were killed in Syria, this is unacceptable," Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.
He said Turkey wants the Arab League deal to be fully implemented and will go on supporting the protocol.
"There are important dimensions of this initiative such as releasing the detainees and allowing observers into the country. We want this initiative to be successful completely," Davutoglu said.
"Turkey will do whatever it can do for its success," he said.
The primary aim of the Arab League is to stop the bloodshed, Davutoglu said.
"We hope this massacre ends," he added.
Syria signed an Arab League agreement that would allow an advance team of observers to head to Damascus on Thursday to lay the ground for monitors overseeing a plan to which Syria agreed on Monday.
The team would include security, legal and administrative observers, with human rights experts expected to follow, and be headed by assistant secretary general Samir Seif al-Yazal.
The observer mission is part of an Arab peace plan endorsed by Syria on November 2, which also calls for a halt to violence, releasing detainees and the withdrawal of the military from towns and residential districts.
The United Nations estimates that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown on protestors since mid-March.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hariri discussed the Syrian crisis with Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his press office said.
It said Hariri arrived in the Turkish capital on Tuesday.
Their talks focused on the developments in the region and the world, mainly the crisis in Syria, and bilateral ties, it added.
Hariri reiterated on twitter on Tuesday night that the Syrian regime will collapse.
Syrian President Bashar Assad signed the Arab protocol because he found himself in the corner, Hariri tweeted in Arabic. But the former premier stressed that Assad will fall in the trap of his actions.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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