French Diplomat Urges Syria and Lebanon to Co-ordinate Efforts to Fight Terrorism
A senior French diplomat has relayed his government’s desire for “Syria and Lebanon to talk and agree on a means to support each other in their fight against terrorism.”
An-Nahar newspaper reported on Saturday that a French diplomat said that cooperation between Syria and Lebanon on this matter was “useful,” if this cooperation occurred with respect for both countries’ sovereignty.
The French diplomat added that “nothing justifies any country’s use of terrorism as a pretext to interfere in another country’s affairs.”
In the An-Nahar report, the French source said that he dismissed allegations his government had “in one way or another, given Syria its blessing to deploy its troops on [Lebanon’s] northern borders.”
The French diplomat said he considered the “Syrian troop deployment to be an internal matter, since it took place on Syrian territory.” The source added that France had not demanded an explanation from Damascus with regard to this development.
The diplomat said that his government wished to observe an improvement in the coming weeks with regard to several important issues, including the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, border demarcation, and the status of missing persons and prisoners in Syrian jails.
The diplomat concluded that France considered “achieving developments on these issues to be a common responsibility.”