CAIRO, 21 December 2005 — Syria said yesterday it was prepared to discuss with the Lebanese side the controversial issue of their common borders but only after bilateral relations improve. “We should not pre-empt issues on the agenda of bilateral ties between Syria and Lebanon,” Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara told reporters during a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Abul Gheit.
He was responding to a question following talks in Cairo between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad. The two leaders met amid increasing public hostility in Lebanon to Syria over its alleged role in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri and the murders of three more anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said in October that his country and Syria had opened talks on establishing diplomatic ties and demarcation of their common borders, a move supported by the international community.
Shara denied that Damascus was playing down the significance of the border issue. “These are important points, but there are more important and pressing points such as improving the climate between the two countries” he said.
A demarcation would defuse tension over the continued presence of Syrian troops in some disputed areas and would help reduce alleged arms smuggling from Syria to militants groups in Lebanon and elsewhere.
