PM Siniora receives an invitation from Kouchner to attend Kuwait conference

 

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora received a phone call from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner inviting him to the ministerial meeting dedicated to discussing the Lebanese crisis on the sidelines of the Iraq Neighboring States Conference in Kuwait, which France organized.

 

PM Siniora has discussed the invitation with all cabinet ministers, and they decided that Acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri and Siniora’s advisor, Dr. Mohammed Chattah, will participate in the meeting.

 

PM Siniora called Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Malkite Patriarch Gregorius Lahham III, Beirut Metropolite Orthodox Bishop Elias Awdeh and Zahle Catholic Bishop Andre Haddad to discuss the conference and other events with them.

 

Foreign ministers of countries neighboring Iraq, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and the remaining G8 industrial nations, will discuss the situation in Iraq at the conference on Tuesday.

 

France confirmed the absence of Syria and Iran from the “informal meeting” on Lebanon to be held in Kuwait.

AKI reported spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry Pascal Andreanie as saying that the scheduled meeting would include representatives from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, United States, Jordan, Italy, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Kingdom, and Russia in addition to European representative Javier Solana and Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa.

Andreanie said a representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was also to attend.

 

On the possibility of a meeting between French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Syrian counterpart Walid Mouallem, Andreanie said Kouchner would meet with Mouallem on the occasion of the meeting on Iraq which joined FMs or FM representatives from 23 countries.