Syria Has No Intention of Intervention, Obama Vowed No Deal at Lebanon Expense
President Michel Suleiman stressed that Syria has no intention to intervene in Lebanese internal affairs and said U.S. President Barak Obama has vowed to him that there will be no deal at Lebanon”s expense.
"I don”t believe there is any Syrian or Iranian role in failure to form a Lebanon government," Suleiman said in an interview published Sunday by pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.
He said the most difficult part in forming a Cabinet was a "political agreement" on a national unity government.
Suleiman said that if Iran and Syria wanted to “Impede" the formation of a government, they would have intervened to prevent so.
He insisted that the dispute in Lebanon centered around names and the distribution of ministerial portfolios.
"I do not expect that states would interfere when it comes to such details," Suleiman said.
"The Syrians have no intention to hinder (government formation) at all," he stressed. "They also have no intention of interfering in (Lebanese) internal affairs because the nature of relations between the Syrians and us is now built on trust."
Suleiman said Obama has emphasized during talks between the two leaders in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting that there will be no deal at Lebanon”s expense.
Obama "vowed to me that there will not be any settlement at the expense of Lebanon," Suleiaman said, adding that the U.S. president is "committed to the interests of Lebanon."