Muallem Invited Aoun to Damascus During Suleiman”s Election
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said he invited Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun to Damascus during the election of the Lebanese president last May.
Meanwhile, official sources told An Nahar daily that a delegation, probably Syrian, would visit Baabda Palace at 8:30am Monday. The sources refused to give further details.
Muallem told ANB TV in an interview Sunday night that Syria cannot tolerate those who have committed crimes but Aoun "is among the prominent leaders in Lebanon and I told him he is welcomed to Damascus whenever he likes."
"I relayed President Bashar Assad”s invitation to him (Aoun) when I accidentally met him in parliament”s hallways during the election of President Michel Suleiman" on May 25, Muallem said.
About the deployment of Syrian troops on Lebanon”s border, Muallem said: "Controlling the border benefits both countries."
He said not more than 700 soldiers from the border guards were deployed on the Lebanese frontier.
Muallem warned that his country would adopt more "painful" measures if the U.S. does not give an explanation of its raid on a Syrian village near the Iraqi border last Sunday.
The Syrian government has already ordered the closure of a U.S. school and an American cultural center.
There has been no formal acknowledgment of the raid from the United States. But U.S. officials have said the target was Badran Turki al-Mazidih, a top al-Qaida in Iraq figure who operated a network of smuggling fighters across the border. The Iraqi national also goes by the name Abu Ghadiyah.
Syria says, however, that eight civilians were killed during the cross-border helicopter strike by American special forces.