Damascus Summit-2: Maintaining Coordination in Common Lebanese-Syrian Issues
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed their satisfaction over the development of relations between Lebanon and Syria. The two presidents stressed they will pursue coordination and consultations in issues of common interest.
The state-run Syrian news agency SANA mentioned that the meeting Thursday morning between al-Assad and Suleiman tackled bilateral ties between the two countries and the means of enforcing them in all aspects.
"The positive developments that Lebanon has witnessed lately were demonstrated, especially the formation of the Lebanese national unity government, as President al-Assad urged to benefit from those atmospheres and to pursue dialogue in order to fortify consensus among the Lebanese — the thing that leads to fortifying national unity which is the basis of Lebanon”s stability and security," added SANA.
The Syrian agency added that Suleiman, on his part, stressed that the special relations with Syria serve Lebanon”s interest, and that he will continue working on those relations to serve the interests of the two countries and the region.
The Suleiman-Assad summit also tackled the latest regional and international developments.
The Lebanese-Syrian summit which had taken place on Thursday morning came only three days after the formation of a new Cabinet as PM Saad Hariri received a congratulation letter from his Syrian counterpart.
In the letter, Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Otari extended congratulations and offered "best wishes of success" to Hariri.
Sources close to Hariri did not rule out a visit to Damascus by the Lebanese premier.
They told AFP, however, that the visit "was not imminent."
The summit comes ahead of Assad”s visit to Paris for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Meanwhile, Suleiman said that "there is no winner, no loser in the new government."
The President described as "good" his relationship with Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
"Hariri has good intentions," Suleiman told As-Safir in an interview published Thursday.
"The experience as premier-designate was useful for him (Hariri) because it enabled him to go into deep discussions with Opposition figures," he said.
"This would facilitate the work of the government and build bridges of trust," Suleiman believed.