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Syria,
Lebanon Call For Implementation Of UN Resolutions
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| Al-Assad visits Lebanon
ahead of Arab summit in Beirut |
BEIRUT,
March 3 (News Agencies) - Syria and Lebanon called Sunday for Middle East peace
based on all UN resolutions, including the right of Palestinian refugees to
return to their homes not mentioned in a Saudi offer to recognize Israel.
"A
just, comprehensive and permanent peace ... must rest on Resolutions 194 (right
to return), 242 and 338 (Israeli pullout from land captured in 1967) and 425
(Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon)," Syria and Lebanon said in a joint
statement issued in Beirut, news agencies reported.
Syrian
President Bashar Al-Assad arrived in Lebanon Sunday on his first visit as head
of state for talks with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud ahead of this month's
Arab summit in Beirut.
Following
a formal welcome by Lahoud and every member of the Lebanese government at Beirut
airport, accompanied by a 21-gun salute, after the short hop from Damascus,
Bashar left for the Baabda presidential palace on the outskirts of the city to
begin talks, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
While
Syria dominates its smaller neighbor politically, no Syrian president has
visited Lebanon since Assad's father Hafez in 1975.
The
surprise visit was only announced by Lebanon late Saturday, while the Syrian
media made no mention of it until Assad's arrival, which was shown live on
Syrian state television, AFP said.
Lebanon's
state-run Tele-Liban said Saturday that the visit would allow Assad and Lahoud
to coordinate positions ahead of the Arab summit, which will be hosted by
Lebanon on March 27 and 28.
Diplomatic
sources said the Middle East peace proposals revealed February 17 by Saudi Crown
Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, about which Syria appears to have reservations,
would be at the top of their agenda.
The
initiative which the prince intends to put to the summit would trade Arab
recognition of the Jewish state for the complete withdrawal of Israel from Arab
lands it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
The
official Syrian press has made no mention of the initiative, while still
commenting in strong terms on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and calling for
continued support for the Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
"This
silence is indicative of reservations, perhaps even disagreement, above all on
the timing of the initiative," said a Western diplomat who declined to be
identified, reported AFP.
The
diplomat suggested that the government of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad
considered that a hard Arab line was necessary at a time when the tough tactics
of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon towards the Palestinians seem to be
losing support in Israeli public opinion. "For Syria, this is not the
moment to loosen the grip on Sharon," he said.
After
their talks, Lahoud and Assad will co-chair a meeting of the joint supreme
council for cooperation between the two countries, which has only met three
times before, each time in Syria. Their respective prime ministers, speakers of
parliament and foreign ministers will also attend the meeting.
The
two neighbors are linked by a 1991 "treaty of fraternity, friendship and
cooperation", and Syria stations some 20,000 troops in Lebanon.
The
Syrian domination is contested by the opposition, notably Christian, which is
seeking a reduction of the troop presence and greater balance in the relations
between the two countries, in particular on the economic front.
The
visit is his first to Lebanon since he succeeded his late father, Hafez
al-Assad, in June 2000, though he came to congratulate Lahoud on his election in
1998.
Apart
from his father, only one other Syrian president, Shukri Kuwatli who came in
1947, has visited Lebanon.
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