By Xinhua,
Damascus : Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said on Wednesday that his country’s military deployment along the borders with Lebanon serves security in both Syria and Lebanon.
Muallem made the remarks at a joint press conference with his visiting Lebanese counterpart Fawzi Salloukh after they signed a joint statement announcing the formal launch of diplomatic ties between the two neighbors.
He said the beef-up of Syrian military presence along the Syrian-Lebanese borders were made to prevent smuggling and enhance border control, which was agreed upon during Lebanese President Michel Suleiman’s visit in mid-August.
In late September, the Lebanese army said Syria has deployed around 10,000 special forces along the northern border with Lebanon, and Damascus stressed the move was linked to a crackdown on smugglers.
“The Syrian military deployment is within Syrian territory,” Muallem noted, adding that “what we are doing serves Syria’s security; it also serves, at the same time, Lebanon’s security.”
“Any other interpretation of this work is for political reasons, which does not serve the interest of the two peoples,” he said.
Muallem said the terrorist incidents in Damascus and Tripoli recently has proven that the two nations are exposed to the same threat and security cooperation should be deepened in the face of the common threat.
Muallem was referring to a suicide attack in Damascus on Sept. 27 which killed 17 people and attacks targeting the Lebanese army in the northern Lebanon city of Tripoli in August and September that left more than 20 people dead.
Salloukh also stressed the need for a security coordination between the two countries to prevent “the smugglers and those who are sowing conflict and bombs.”
Meanwhile, Salloukh expressed delight on the signing of the joint statement earlier, which announces “the launching of diplomatic relations between the Syrian Arab Republic and the Lebanese Republic, effective today, Oct. 15, 2008.”
Salloukh arrived in Damascus on earlier Wednesday to sign the joint statement with the Syrians.
The statement came one day after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree, ordering the establishment of diplomatic ties between Syria and Lebanon and the creation of diplomatic mission on the ambassador level in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
During a visit to Paris in July, President Assad, together with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman, announced that the two countries intended to set up diplomatic ties.
The two leaders made further announcement on Aug. 13 during an official visit by Suleiman to Syria that the two neighbors agreed to establish diplomatic ties and demarcate their borders.
Early last month, Assad declared that his country and Lebanon are expected to appoint their ambassadors to each other’s capital before the end of this year.
Syria and Lebanon have not established diplomatic relations since their independence from the French colonial rule in the 1940s. Syria did not withdraw its troops from Lebanon until 2005.