SYRIA: Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri meets Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as Beirut-Damascus standoff continues

Record ID: 279919

  • Title: SYRIA: Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri meets Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as Beirut-Damascus standoff continues
  • Date: 7th April 2008
  • Summary: (MER-1) DAMASCUS, SYRIA (APRIL 7, 2008) (REUTERS) LEBANESE PARLIAMENT SPEAKER NABIH BERRI ARRIVING / SHAKING HANDS WITH SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD BERRI AND ASSAD IN MEETING CLOSE OF BERRI BERRI AND ASSAD IN MEETING CLOSE OF ASSAD BERRI AND ASSAD IN MEETING
  • Embargoed: 22nd April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA1RX74X6RMS13M3W77NF0S41U2
  • Story Text: Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri says talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus have reinvigorated efforts to elect a new Lebanese president and end the country's political crisis.
    During a state visit starting Monday (April 7), Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said that talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria had reinvigorated efforts to elect a new president and end the Lebanese political crisis.
    A Lebanese political source said that Berri, also a key member of the Syrian-backed opposition, had discussed with Assad a proposal to initiate dialogue between rival Lebanese leaders.
    The crisis, the worst since the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war, has left Lebanon without a president since November and soured relations between regional rivals Syria and Saudi Arabia.
    Berri told reporters after his talks with Assad that the visit had given dialogue on the Lebanese crisis fresh momentum.
    Syria's official SANA news agency said that Assad stressed to Berri Damascus' support for dialogue and to Lebanese national consensus.
    Berri is expected to visit Cairo and Riyadh, his spokesman said, without giving a date.
    Syria promised Arab leaders at an Arab summit in Damascus last month it would cooperate in efforts to end the crisis, while Saudi Arabia said it saw Damascus as part of the solution.
    The Hezbollah-led opposition and the anti-Syrian majority, backed by Saudi Arabia and Western powers, have been locked in a standoff that has paralysed government and led to bouts of sectarian violence.
    Berri was quoted by Beirut's pro-Syrian as-Safir daily as saying that he would go on two "important visits" to Damascus and Riyadh for talks with the Syrian and Saudi leaderships."

    "Based on the results of these two visits and my internal communications ... I will decide on the next move on the issue of the dialogue," he said.
    The 16-month-old crisis has caused repeated delays to the presidential election which are now scheduled for April 22.
    Berri said the talks were preliminarily set for April 18-21.

    "And if we don't agree we will postpone the elections and continue the dialogue until we reach a comprehensive deal," he told as-Safir.
    The anti-Syrian government boycotted the Arab summit in protest at what it said is Syrian obstruction, through its Lebanese local allies, to electing a new president.
    Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan sent low level delegations to the summit in a snub to Syria.
    While the Lebanese rivals have agreed on army chief General Michel Suleiman to be president, his confirmation by parliament has been held up by differences over the shape of his government and a law governing the next general election in 2009.
    Berri had chaired two rounds of talks between the ruling coalition and the opposition in 2006 but the talks failed to settle all the differences between the two sides.
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