Merkel urges Syria to stop arms smuggling to Lebanon

"Syria must stop the smuggling of arms, establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon and demarcate a common border," the current EU president said at a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

Merkel, who excluded Syria from her Middle East tour, also called for Damascus to "cooperate fully" with the UN probe into the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former premier Rafiq Hariri for which Syria has been widely blamed.

There was "no excuse" for the international tribunal which the UN Security Council has proposed to try suspects in the Hariri murder not to be established, the chancellor said.

Merkel said it was "important for the stability of Lebanon," where political deadlock has divided the country between Siniora's Western-backed government and the pro-Syrian opposition.

The anti-Syrian camp accuses the opposition of blocking efforts to establish a tribunal at the behest of Damascus.

Merkel also met opposition stalwart Nabih Berri, the speaker of parliament, as part of efforts to heal the deep political crisis since the resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers from the government in November.

But she did not meet Damascus-backed President Emile Lahoud who is boycotted by the European Union.

Merkel also visited one of the German ships taking part in the UN peacekeeping force which was reinforced after last year's 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's Syrian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

In Damascus, Syrian Housing and Construction Minister Hamud al-Hussein and a senior southern Lebanon official, Kabalan Kabalan, on Monday signed an accord to rebuild 360 homes in three villages devastated in the conflict.

Merkel, whose tour also took her to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, arrived in Beirut shortly after Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), Democrat speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Pelosi has angered the White House because of her plans to visit Syria on Tuesday during her Middle East tour.

Source

About headlines and content that gets changed after it was added to this site - see disclaimer here

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.