BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said his country has no interest in holding peace talks with neighboring Israel at the moment. “I see no interest for us right now to discuss direct negotiations or indirect negotiations with Israel,” Siniora said in an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation broadcast on Wednesday.
“No one has challenged our claim of authority and ownership of the land that Israel occupies. So we see it as premature to take a decision in this regard as yet,” he added. Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000 after more than two decades of occupation, but Lebanon claims it is still occupying land on the border, including Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources.
Lebanon’s former power broker Syria began Turkish-mediated indirect peace talks with Israel in May, eight years after the previous negotiations broke down over the fate of the strategic Golan Heights plateau.
However, the talks have been suspended since Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced in July that he would step down.
On Monday, Syrian President Bashar Assad said his country would eventually embark on direct peace talks with Israel, but that they must be based on UN Security Council resolutions. “We are closely following what the Syrian Arab Republic is undertaking, but that is the decision of the Syrian Arab Republic... We in Lebanon have to look at our situation very carefully,” Siniora said. “We always have said it is in Lebanon’s interest to be the last country to enter into a peace process (with Israel),” he added.
Siniora also welcomed the imminent opening of the first-ever Syrian Embassy in Beirut after the two countries agreed to re-establish ties for the first time since independence 60 years ago. “It is a very important and fundamental step that lays the groundwork for other steps,” the Lebanese premier said.
Meanwhile, a German military delegation was to visit Beirut next month to complete the discussions with President Michel Suleiman to grant Lebanon military assistance, a Lebanese news agency reported Wednesday.
Al-Markaziyeh news agency, citing an informed Lebanese source, said the German delegation would discuss with their Lebanese counterparts German military assistance to the Lebanese Army aimed at enhancing the latter’s military capabilities.The source said that Germany had decided to grant Lebanon 50 Leopard tanks and other equipment to enhance monitoring the borders with Syria.
