Lebanon’s press yesterday appeared unimpressed by the outcome of a historic Syria-Saudi-Lebanon summit, saying it failed to address key issues linked to rising tensions in the country.
“The core problem in Lebanon of how an Iranian-Syrian-allied armed Hezbollah can coexist with the Lebanese state remains unresolved and will rear its head again soon,” journalist Rami Khouri wrote in the Daily Star, Lebanon’s only English-language newspaper.
“The Syrian-Saudi visit to keep things quiet in Lebanon is an upgraded version of the ... diplomatic move in May 2008 to contain and end the brief street fighting that ... threatened to rip the country apart along Sunni-Shiite lines,” Khouri wrote.
He was referring to a week of deadly violence that erupted that month when the government announced — and then repealed — a crackdown on Shiite militant Hezbollah.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi King Abdullah arrived in Lebanon on Friday for an hours-long visit, their first such visit since 2002.
The visit was widely seen as a desperate bid to ease tensions over reports of an impending indictment by a UN tribunal against members of Hezbollah for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Rafiq Hariri, the father of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
“Assad to Abdullah in Damascus: end the tribunal as it has ruined Lebanon,” read analyst Nicolas Nassif’s headline in the Arabic daily al-Akhbar, which is close to Hezbollah.
“It may be too soon to predict the immediate outcome of the tripartite summit in Beirut yesterday... but [one outcome] of the summit was Syria’s and Saudi’s confirmation that they represent the major overseers of Lebanon’s stability,” Nassif wrote.
Saudi Arabia, which was close to the slain prime minister, holds sway with Lebanon’s ruling alliance led by his son Saad, while Syria and Iran support a rival camp led by Hezbollah.
Assad’s visit is controversial as his country was widely accused of the bombing that killed Hariri .and 22 others on Feb. 14, 2005.
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