By Hadi Khatib
Lebanonwire staff

Lebanon was the center of attention for the US, France and Saudi Arabia in meetings held yesterday between French President Jacques Chirac with each of Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal and US Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice, while reports are indicating that Syria is being given time to catch its breath as it cooperates with the international community on UN 1559 and the former premier Rafiq Hariri murder probe.

A French Foreign Embassy spokesperson announced that Chirac and the US were “in total agreement” over a number of Middle East issues including Lebanon, following a 90-minute meeting between Chirac and Rice, which came after an earlier meeting the French President held with Faisal in France.

The Rice meeting discussed the Lebanese-Syrian relations, the national dialogue, the Hariri probe and Syria’s cooperation with the investigation under UN Security Resolution 1644 which calls for the creation of an international tribunal to prosecute the culprits in the assassination case.

Daily AL-Hayat reported on Friday Syrian foreign embassy sources as telling it Syria will not hamper the mission of UN special envoy for the implementation of UN 1559 Terje-Roed Larsen, a day after they told the daily that the country would object to the funding of Larsen’s mission.

“From early one, we have expressed our reservations towards Larsen’s overstepping of his duties with regard to UN 1559, when he included the Syrian-Lebanese diplomatic relations and their border demarcation as part of the security resolution, however we will not stand in the way of the UN General Assembly’s financing of the mission,” the sources told the daily.

The same sources told Al-Hayat that “we will however insist that Larsen restricts his mission to what is implied in UN 1559 and not engage in areas that tackle sovereignty issues.”

Daily An-Nahar said Rice left on her European tour without commenting on her meeting with Chirac, however said the French President expressed his optimism that the dialogue talks in Beirut “were positive since they led to a partial implementation of UN 1559.”

The daily reported that Faisal was closely following the progress of the national dialogue despite Lebanon’s snubbing of an earlier Saudi initiative to bring the country out of its presidential crisis.

Future Movement leader Saad Hariri had on Wednesday expressed his regret “for not having accepted Saudi Arabia’s initiative and I apologize for that because we need all the help we can get from our Arab brethren.”

Earlier this month, Chirac had paid a visit to Saudi Arabia where he called for Syria’s cooperation with the international investigation into the Hariri murder and other international resolutions relative to Lebanon mainly UN 1559.

Daily Al-Mustaqbal said Friday that Chirac expressed following his meetings yesterday France’s wish to help implement UN Security Resolutions pertaining to Lebanon and encouraged Lebanon and (UN chief Kofi) Annan to come to an agreement on the formation of an international tribunal, one day after the UN gave the secretary general the green light to do just that.

The daily said Chirac considered the Arab Summit in Khartoum as “important.”

The Summit reaffirmed the resistance’s rights in Lebanon to liberate any occupied land, protect the country’s dignity and defend it against aggression.

Ad-Diyar daily said highly informed sources told it “Syria has been able to catch its breath following recent regional development where Iran is facing international condemnation over its nuclear program, Hamas’ electoral wins in the Palestinian elections and the worsening situation in Iraq, a country under the threat of civil war.”

“Syria has been able to calm the international community’s fears by sending messages it was ready to cooperate on a number of UN Security Resolutions including UN 1559 and the Hariri probe,” the sources told the daily.

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