Mansour Plays Down Criticism over Syria Remarks at Arab League
Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour pointed out on Thursday that his speech at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers held in Cairo was chosen carefully by him, stressing that he is keen to preserve Lebanon's best interest.
“I will not hesitate in saying my opinion frankly... If some officials have some matters they want to settle with me, then I'm ready,” Mansour told reporters after arriving at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International airport returning from Egypt.
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, who stressed that Lebanon is committed to the dissociation policy.
“I choose my speech and every word in it carefully,” the minister said.
“My statements didn't require all this fuss... Syria was one of the founding states of the Arab League,” Mansour said.
He pointed out that scrapping the decision would lead to reviving discussions between the Arab states and Syria over ways to end the turmoil in it.
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.
“The Lebanese state is holding onto the disassociation policy... But I cannot disassociate myself from the risks that are threatening my country,” Mansour stated.
The FM said that giving the right to countries to export arms to Syria will only affect the neighboring countries, in particular, Lebanon.
“This matter will affect all the Lebanese and not a specific faction,” Mansour said.
A final statement issued at the end of the Arab ministerial meeting said they had "stressed the right of each state according to its wishes to offer all types of self defense, including military, to support the resilience of the Syrian people and the Free (Syrian) Army."
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