The Assad regime is seemingly trying to offset the negative impact of anti-Lebanon tirades unleashed by the state-run Syrian media of late, which called for reparations from Lebanon for the downfall of Syria's 29-year reign of terror and unabashedly put 37 Syrian workers purportedly killed in Lebanon on par with Lebanon's slain ex-Premier Rafik Hariri. "The leaks concerning the policy statement of the newly formed Lebanese government on Syria do call for optimism, but a final judgment is reserved until it is formally announced," said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al Sharaa in what was seen by the Beirut media as an attempt to defuse the current combustion between the two countries.

The policy statement is going to be read out by Premier Seniora at the outset of a 2-day sitting of Parliament beginning at mid-morning Thursday. The half-Christian, half-Muslim government of 24 cabinet ministers is certain to win an overwhelming vote of confidence by the weekend.

Seniora has pledged to travel to Damascus upon winning a confidence vote to resolve a land blockade the Assad administration clamped against Lebanon five weeks ago in an all-out trade war evidently designed to punish Beirut for Syria's humiliating evacuation of Lebanon after Hariri's assassination.

Sharaa made no direct reference to Seniora's planned trip, nor did he comment on a demand made by the official newspaper of Syria's ruling Baath Party that Lebanon must make a public apology to the Assad government before Seniora goes to Damascus for abusive attacks made by Lebanese politicians after Syria's departure.

Speaking to journalists on the occasion of their annual day at the cultural center of Mezza Tuesday, Sharaa expressed the hope that Lebanon would return to being an "independent state not steered by foreign embassies within the concept of Syria getting out and others getting in to dictate what they want on Lebanon."

He said there were no negative reflections on Syria from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Beirut on Friday. "The visit made the U.S. understand Lebanon's nationalist conviction that the maintenance of a distinguished relationship with Syria is indispensable," Sharaa commented.

He indicated that the crisis of hundreds upon hundreds of Lebanese cargo trucks stranded for weeks on the shuttered Syria border could be resolved once a political entente is established by the two countries.

"The problem of the stranded trucks is one of security and security tranquility means political tranquility," Sharaa theorized. He asserted that the Assad regime was ready to reconsider the treaties signed by the two countries, "which are basically in Lebanon's favor." He said the Lebanese side has demanded the review of these treaties. - Naharnet