Lebanonwire.com | Lebanese PM looks to new future on Syria visit

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July 31, 2005

Lebanese PM looks to new future on Syria visit
by Nassib Azar

DAMASCUS, Syria - Lebanon's new Prime Minister Fuad Siniora held talks in Damascus on Sunday aimed at repairing ties with former power broker Syria, with both sides promising to build their future on "mutual respect".

"We undertook to work to build Syrian-Lebanese relations based on mutual respect and to distance anything that could damage these privileged relations," said a joint statement following talks between Siniora and Syrian premier Mohammad Naji Otari.

Relations have deteriorated sharply since Damascus ended its three-decade military presence in Lebanon in April and anti-Syrian parties won a parliamentary majority in elections in May and June.

Siniora's trip comes just a day after his government, the first of the post-Syrian era, won parliamentary approval, drawing a line under a tortuous process that led to the formation of his cabinet.

The two sides also announced the lifting of an effective road block at the Syrian border that has held up thousands of goods trucks trying to leave Lebanon in recent weeks.

"The flow of goods and people will be facilitated through Syrian and Lebanese land crossing points," said the statement.

Following his meeting with Otari, Siniora headed for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Siniora later told journalists that Beirut would work to find a solution to "all the problems currently on hold".

Otari said that during the talks "all matters of interest between Syria and Lebanon were examined as well as adequate mechanisms aimed at eliminating all obstacles preventing their development".

The Syrian premier said that joint committees for defence, security, foreign and economic affairs "will be activated" alongside a joint commission to look into Syrian and Lebanese "disappeared".

The Syrian government daily Tishrin said on Sunday that Damascus would pass on "requests from families" of 795 Syrians reported missing in Lebanon, a matter that was never officially discussed between the two in the past.

Relatives of hundreds of Lebanese who disappeared or were imprisoned while the country was under the Syrian yoke also want news on the fate of their loved ones.

Damascus has demanded compensation from Beirut for workers it says were targeted in Lebanon, alleging that some of its 300,000 workers were attacked and forced to flee after former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri was murdered.

Siniora, 62, is a former finance minister and close ally of Hariri who was killed in a massive bomb blast in Beirut in February widely blamed on Syria and its allies in Lebanon.

"Siniora had positive discussions with Syrian leaders on the constants of Lebanese-Syrian relations and the means of developing them," Nasri Khuri, head of the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council, said of Sunday's talks.

"The privileged relations should evolve in the spirit of the friendship treaty and accords signed by the two countries," he told AFP, adding that "a committee will be charged with introducing amendments, if necessary, to eliminate all frustration."

Siniora has previously called for "healthy, privileged and solid relations" with Syria, which has dominated Lebanese life since the 1975-1990 civil war.

"I want to come back with a new way of dealing between Lebanon and Syria, a new thinking, that we should co-operate and create an attitude of openness between the two countries," he said in an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday.

Syria's pullout three months ago was sparked by intense international pressure in the wake of Hariri's killing.

In June, an anti-Syrian Lebanese politician and journalist were killed in separate bomb blasts in Lebanon, leading the Lebanese opposition to again point the finger at Damascus for their deaths. Syria has denied any involvement.

Syria then reinforced border security controls with reports that weapons and people were crossing the frontier illegally.

Siniora's government line-up took weeks of talks and stinging political rows to form. His cabinet includes a minister from Hezbollah, which Washington still regards as a terrorist organization.

Siniora presented a series of reforms to parliament on Thursday, pledging a programme to focus on national reconciliation and democracy.

Subsequent parliamentary debate centred on loosening Syria's clampdown on Lebanese cross-border trade and the future of Hezbollah which the United Nations has called on to disarm.