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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
French FM meets Assad, calls for easing of tensions
2010-05-24
BEIRUT - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called in Damascus and Beirut on Sunday for an easing of tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbours, urging all sides to respect a 2006 ceasefire in Lebanon.

“We cannot be resigned to a constant state of tension, even if it is decreasing,' Kouchner told journalists after a meeting in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He renewed an appeal for all sides to respect UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended a devastating month-long war in 2006 between Israel and Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah. The resolution bans the delivery of arms to the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah.
That's working well, and an appeal from the French will guarantee perfect compliance ...
In Damascus, Kouchner expressed France's concern over Hezbollah's weaponry, to which Assad gave assurances it was not in the interests of Damascus, Tehran or Hezbollah to trigger a new conflict, a French diplomatic source said. The source said that France as a peace broker also wanted to encourage Syria to ease tensions in the region and not to facilitate the delivery of arms to Hezbollah.

In the meeting with Kouchner, Assad accused the West of overlooking Israeli violations in the region. “The region has changed and the West's policy in the area is no longer acceptable, keeping silent over Israeli violations is no longer acceptable,' Syria's official news agency SANA quoted Assad as saying.

“If the West wants security and stability to be established in the Middle East, they (Western countries) must start to play an effective role to contain Israel and put an end to its extremist policies,' Assad said.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  How much did the pencil-necked dictator offer you, Bernie?
Posted by: mojo   2010-05-24 10:55  

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