Prime Minister Fouad Siniora revealed yesterday that Syria is dragging its feet on the urgent matter of resolving the identity of the Shebaa Farms and the border demarcation between the two countries and pointed to a negative attitude on the part of Syrian Vice President Farouk Sharaa, putting into the question and threatening to cancel an expected visit to Syria by the premier.

Siniora decided to attend the Khartoum Arab Summit after all but his anticipated trip to Syria to resolve outstanding issues related to the national dialogue is in jeopardy, following comments the premier made yesterday while addressing the participants at the roundtable talks in Beirut.

“Sharaa’s comments made to Egyptian President Husni Mubaraq last week were not encouraging,” Siniora is quoted as saying to participants in the national dialogue in daily An-Nahar.

“Syria is claiming I did not fulfill the commitments I made during a previous trip to that country.”

The daily said the March 14th coalition believed Syria has taken a decision to refuse any border demarcation with Lebanon even before Siniora arrives there.

“The meeting that President Emile Lahoud had with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Khartoum on Monday was to ensure Lahoud’s address included a confirmation of the Shebaa Farms Lebanese identity, the positive role Syria played in Lebanon and the right of return of Palestinians as per UN 194,” the majority coalition is quoted as saying in the daily.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem is also quoted in the daily as saying “Syria has nothing to do with the Shebaa Farms. Larsen is the one saying the farms are Syrian and Lebanon has to correct him.”

Daily Al-Hayat quoted Moallem as saying “UN 1559 does not mention the need for Lebanon and Syria to have diplomatic relations, so I don’t know on whose behalf Larsen is talking.”

The daily said Siniora’s summit visit was in preparation for another one to Syria within one week.

It quoted Siniora as saying “we will do our best to resolve all outstanding issues with Syria, including establishing diplomatic relations, resolving the Shebaa Farms dilemma, and demarcating the borders, however not at the expense of our convictions and national principles.”

The daily also quoted Siniora as saying that Moallem and Sharaa’s refusal to sit with Lebanese officials and deal with the Shebaa Farms, on the pretense that the said lands are up to the Lebanese to prove their identity “contradicts what Assad said in Paris in 2001 when he announced that the Farms are an issue that Lebanon and Syria need to agree upon.”

Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh told Agence France Press Monday that the Arab Summit will show solidarity with Lebanon on the Lebanese identity of the Shebaa Farms, indicating that the bilateral relations of the two countries are not part of the summit’s agenda.

Al-Mustaqbal daily quoted the National News Agency as saying that the Lahoud-Assad visit was to update the Syrian president on the progress of the national dialogue and find ways of resolving outstanding issues between the two countries following the Syrian pullout from Lebanon last year.

Siniora was quoted in several dailies as having said that his Summit participation was to fill a void left by Lahoud’s attendance of the Khartoum meet “since the president lacks the support of many Lebanese back home and thus it is in no one’s interest to have Lahoud represent Lebanon on his own.”

For his part, Future Movement leader Saad Hariri announced yesterday that Arabs would like to see a cooling down of the crisis between Syria and Lebanon and thus creating the need for Siniora to attend the summit.

Larsen said on Monday he was optimistic that a border dispute could be settled and normal diplomatic relations resumed between Lebanon and Syria.

“I do now have very good hopes that it should be possible to resolve these two essential issues related to Lebanon's sovereignty,” Larsen said after meeting French Foreign Minister Philippe Doust-Blazy.

Roed-Larsen said he was pleased to see total agreement among the key regional players on issues arising from the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1559, indicating that the primary responsibility lay with Damascus and Beirut “who should sit at the table and start the work on establishing diplomatic ties and start the necessary work on demarcating their border.”

Daily An-Nahar also reported Tuesday that the political situation in Lebanon and UN security resolutions pertaining to Lebanon and Syria will be part of the agenda of talks US Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice plans to have with French President Jacques Chirac later on this week.

Informed American sources told An-Nahar daily that the projected talks will deal with the progress at the national dialogue, Larsen’s shuttle visits in the region and the international investigation into the former premier Rafiq Hariri’s murder.

The sources expressed their approval of Larsen’s snubbing of Lahoud during a visit to Beirut last week, whom they described as “marginalized”.

“Lebanon will the center of attention at the UN Security Council staring today when it will prepare a French draft project to create ‘an international tribunal’ to prosecute Hariri’s murder culprits,” the sources told the daily.

Meanwhile in France, following a meeting with Chirac, Qatari Prince Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani said “Qatar and France are in total agreement on the Syrian-Lebanese file in reference to the need to respect international resolutions and reducing the tension between the two countries.”

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