President Sends Memo on Syria Violations to Arab League
President Michel Suleiman handed the Arab League on Thursday a memo urging warring sides in Syria to respect Lebanon's sovereignty, two days after taking an unprecedented move in sending a similar memo to the U.N.
Suleiman handed the memo to Ambassador Abdul Rahman al-Solh so that he refers it to Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, the state-run National News Agency reported.
It said the document hopes that the Arab League would take action in compelling the different parties to commit to the respect of Lebanon's sovereignty and the integrity of its territories.
It also hoped that they would not engage in assaults on both sides of the border.
On Tuesday, Suleiman handed U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly a memo that deals with “the violations and attacks carried out by all the warring parties in Syria.”
The president hoped Plumbly would refer a copy of the document to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to adopt it as an official U.N. document, Baabda palace said in a terse statement.
Suleiman's move came amid a spat with caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour who was procrastinating in referring the memos to the U.N. and the Arab League.
Mansour, who is close to the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance, has been criticized by the March 14 coalition on several occasions for ignoring similar requests from the president.
Syrian regime troops have carried out attacks on border areas, mainly air raids on the northeastern town of Arsal, which has become an escape route for rebels and people running away from the fighting in Syria.
There have also been several attacks from rebel-held areas of Syria on Hizbullah strongholds in recent months.
Such attacks increased after Hizbullah, along with Syrian army forces captured from rebels the key central Syrian town of Qusayr.
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