Sarkozy Determined to Help Settle Issue of Lebanon-Syria Border Demarcation
French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the Lebanese people to continue efforts to revive the "Lebanese miracle" and promised to exert more efforts to solve lingering issues between Beirut and Damascus.
"My message to the Lebanese people is very simple. Continue efforts… towards dialogue and reconciliation and building a free and democratic Lebanon," Sarkozy told several Beirut dailies in remarks published Monday.
His comments to An Nahar, As Safir and L”Orient-Le-Jour came as the French president embarks on a four-nation tour of the Middle East on Monday.
He will be in Egypt, the West Bank and Israel on Monday and in Syria and Lebanon on Tuesday.
"I believe the Lebanese together are achieving something exceptional," which includes "reviving the Lebanese miracle," he said, adding "the international community, and particularly France, support Lebanon in its attempts to achieve it."
About the upcoming parliamentary elections, Sarkozy said: "The legislative elections should be held with utmost transparency and in a democratic spirit, free from violence."
Sarkozy announced that he would reiterate during his second visit to Beirut France”s support for Lebanon and congratulate Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and all officials on the progress made since the Doha Accord was signed in May last year.
Asked if he could persuade Damascus into solving the problem of border demarcation with Lebanon after he was able to help establish diplomatic relations between Syria and Lebanon, Sarkozy replied: "I took a risk on a personal level in restarting dialogue with Damascus and I assume full responsibility in particular towards my Lebanese friends."
He said what has been achieved in Lebanon in the past six months wouldn”t have been possible without such a risk.
He said Lebanon and Syria are now cooperating "to restore relations based on trust and mutual respect."
"I am not naïve and I realize that there are still several stages that need to be crossed," he said.
"Be sure that in the future I will show the same level of determination to follow up other commitments made by President Michel Suleiman and (Syrian) President Bashar al-Assad during their summit, particularly the issue of border demarcation or settle the painful issue of the missing," Sarkozy stressed.
On the international tribunal that would try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri”s suspected assassins, Sarkozy said that France is "committed to enforce international justice and fight impunity…We fully trust the work of the investigative commission and certainly respect the decisions" of the court.
Sarkozy said his visit to Beirut is also aimed at encouraging French peacekeepers in south Lebanon.
He will be the first leader of a major power to visit the region since Israel began its military offensive on Gaza on December 27.
Hamas "bears a heavy responsibility in the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza," Sarkozy said.
While condemning the Israeli ground offensive itself, Sarkozy told the newspapers: "I want to say again here that we condemn with the same firmness (Hamas”) continuing rocket fire, which is an unacceptable provocation.
"Hamas, which decided to break the truce and to resume rocket fire on Israel, bears a heavy responsibility in the suffering of the Palestinians of Gaza," he added.
"The launching of the Israeli ground offensive makes the need to get a ceasefire even more urgent," said Sarkozy.
"This offensive, we have condemned along with our European partners, because it takes us that little bit further away from the changes of peace, and because it makes it more difficult to get aid to the people of Gaza.
"And I will say again to the Israeli authorities that it is absolutely essential that they let humanitarian aid through to Gaza," he added.