By IRNA,
Beirut : The foreign minister of Syria reiterated on Monday that Syria intends to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon, for the first time since the two nations gained independence more than 60 years ago.
“We are determined to open an embassy and to exchange diplomatic representation,” Walid Moallem told reporters here.
Earlier this month, at a conference of Mediterranean countries in Paris, Presidents Bashar Assad of Syria and Michel Suleiman of Lebanon agreed to open embassies in each other’s capital.
That conference, orchestrated by President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, was seen as ending the strained relations between Damascus and Beirut that followed the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, in a car bomb.
Moallem met on Monday with Suleiman and invited him to visit Damascus.
The visit would be the first by a Lebanese official in more than three years. The Lebanese press said the trip would take place in a week or 10 days.
Moallem said that Assad considered Suleiman trustworthy, which he said bode well for resolving outstanding issues.