Report: France Urging March 14 for Better Relations with Syria
Pan Arab daily al-Hayat on Thursday quoted a well informed French source as saying that Paris will urge the March 14 forces to improve ties with Syria.
The source said that head of the Middle East and North Africa department at the French foreign ministry, Patrice Paoli, and his aides will meet a March 14 delegation over lunch. The delegation includes MPs Marwan Hamadeh, Samir Franjieh, March 14 coordinator Fares Soaid and National Liberal Party leader Dory Chamoun.
The source said that Paris wants to hear the coalition”s view on the adoption of the elections law, the launch of the national dialogue and the unstable security situation in the northern city of Tripoli.
France wants to urge the alliance to improve its ties with Syria and not to give Damascus any excuse to escape from its commitments, the source told al-Hayat.
He also said that French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is ready to receive Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun anytime the Lebanese MP wants.
The source said Damascus was worried about the situation in Tripoli because of historic ties between the city”s Sunnis and those of Homs in Syria.
But such worries shouldn”t lead to a change in Syria”s policy towards the Lebanese city, according to the source, and that Damascus shouldn”t adopt any measure that contradicts recent Syrian openness.
On the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area, the source said: "France continues to ask Israel to withdraw from" the zone in order to put an end to Hizbullah”s excuses to keep its arms.
The source also said that Israel was expressing worries to France and the U.S. about alleged arms smuggling to Hizbullah through the Syrian border.
France sees that the best way is for Israel to withdraw from Shebaa, according to the source.