Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora was expected yesterday to press President Vladimir Putin to use his influence with Syria to help defuse a political crisis that Siniora sees as a Damascus-backed coup attempt.
The Lebanese premier arrived late on Thursday in Moscow amid domestic upheaval including mass demonstrations in Beirut by supporters of the Syrian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah and its Christian allies against Siniora's Western-backed government.
"We are for the regularization of relations with Syria. I think Russia can exert some pressure in this direction," Siniora said overnight, the Interfax news agency reported.
He was scheduled to meet Putin, Russian security council chief Igor Ivanov and parliamentary leaders, ITAR-TASS reported.
The Lebanese prime minister's arch rival, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is scheduled to fly to the Russian capital on Monday for a three-day visit, prompting speculation that Putin may attempt to broker a deal between the two leaders.
Moscow is eager to reassert its influence in the Middle East, which has waned since the collapse of the Soviet Union. As its chief arms supplier, Russia is recognized as having influence over Syria, its longtime chief ally in the region.
According to Siniora, Moscow could play a key role because Russia "not only supports Lebanon, but the whole Arab people ... This fact is very important for us," ITAR-TASS reported.
He singled out what he said had been Russia's diplomatic influence in pressing for an end to Israel's conflict with Lebanon in July and August, triggered by a Hezbollah cross-border raid into Israel.
"Russia gave political support to Lebanon this summer and did everything to end this terrible war," it said.
Siniora acknowledged that his country faced a grave political crisis, but expressed confidence that a resolution could be found.
"I believe that we will manage to avoid a split, although the situation inside the country is not as optimistic as we could hope for," he was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS. "The Lebanese do not have an alternative to dialogue with each other."
Ahead of the trip, Lebanon's ambassador to Russia said that Siniora's visit was aimed at providing Russia with "trustworthy" information about the situation in Lebanon, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Syria was the powerbroker in Lebanon for nearly three decades. It was forced to withdraw its troops last year amid a public outcry over the murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri, widely blamed on Syria but denied by Damascus.
Lebanon's pro-Syrian political opposition now wants to bring down Siniora's government over demands for greater power-sharing, seen by the government as a ploy to reassert Syrian influence in the country.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing