Egypt is trying to contain the escalating Syrian-Lebanese crisis. Dina Ezzat reports Less than a week following his Cairo talks with prominent Lebanese opposition figure Saad Al-Hariri, son of the assassinated former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri, President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday received Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The topic of discussion during the three rounds of talks, as well as other negotiations, that the president and his Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit conducted with several Syrian, Lebanese, Arab and international officials was the same as when Al-Assad was in town less than three months earlier: how to contain the US-led move to isolate Syria and, on a parallel and equally fast-moving track, to put an end to the rise in Syrian-Lebanese tension that has taken several manifestations. However, Tuesday's round of talks, sources tell Al-Ahram Weekly, was different in the tone and firmness demonstrated by Cairo over the need for Damascus to offer a better response to the Lebanese demands of an end to any Syrian intervention, no matter how remote, in internal Lebanese affairs, especially those related to security administration. The relatively strong language, sources add, will not undermine the commitment of Cairo and the Arab League to prevent any attempt to subject Syria to international sanctions even if some Syrian security officials are proved by an ongoing international investigation to be involved in Al-Hariri's assassination in the heart of Beirut in February, or for that matter any of the subsequent assassinations of and attacks on Lebanese figures opposed to the Syrian role in Lebanon, including last week's assassination of prominent commentator and MP Gibran Tueni. While the Mubarak-Assad talks were mostly tête-à-tête, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who visited Beirut and Damascus in the wake of Tueni's assassination to attempt to contain the situation, attended part of the meetings. Moussa had earlier briefed Cairo on the outcome of his talks on the two visits. Prior to the meeting, Mubarak had received Mustafa Othman Ismail, political advisor to the Sudanese president, who has been conducting a mediation effort between Syria and Lebanon. Mubarak has also been in close contact with top Saudi officials who have been using their good offices to help iron out Syrian- Lebanese differences. Having reviewed all Arab initiatives on the Syrian-Lebanese front, Mubarak stressed upon his Syrian counterpart the need for Damascus to start sending Beirut some indication of goodwill. Al-Assad was assured that on-going Arab mediation efforts would encourage the Lebanese government to show signs of rapprochement on its part too. A list of specific issues were put on the table, including the Lebanese complaint over what Beirut described as insensitive comments made by Syrian officials against their Lebanese counterparts, including press statements by the Syrian prime minister over his reluctance to receive calls from his Lebanese counterpart. Moreover, the issues discussed in Cairo on Tuesday included the Lebanese demand that Syria officially declares the Shebaa Farms, that are still occupied by Israel, as indisputably Lebanese and not Syrian territories and to once and for all finalise the demarcation of borders between Syria and Lebanon, an issue that has been subject to extensive exchange of letters between Damascus and Beirut the past few months. "The most pressing issue now is to clear the air between the two countries. This is much more important than issues like border demarcation," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa told reporters at a joint press briefing he held with his Egyptian counterparts following the Mubarak-Assad talks. Al-Sharaa said it made a big difference if such steps are undertaken in a good, friendly and "brotherly" atmosphere. He insisted that his country is "profoundly interested" in improving relations with Lebanon especially that "there are no deep differences between the Syrian and the Lebanese people" that will "one day" realise the efforts exerted by Syria to serve Lebanese interests and "to spare Lebanon from a new phase of civil war". Lebanon was wracked by a 15-year civil war that began in 1975. The Syrian troops sent to Lebanon at the time helped, in the view of many commentators, stabilise the situation. Other issues included the need for Syria and Lebanon to exchange diplomatic missions as any two sovereign and independent countries. Sympathy was expressed over the Syrian concern for the safety of its workers in Lebanon who have been involved in several incidents since the spring withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in the wake of the massive anti-Syria sentiment which followed the killing of Al-Hariri which most Lebanese blamed Damascus for. Meanwhile, the Syrian concern over the widening international investigation to include all political assassinations during the past eight months was also raised during the talks. The high-level Syrian delegation reviewed other options concerning the investigation into the killings of Lebanese figures within a Lebanese or Arab framework. In Cairo, Al-Sharaa said that Syria had extended maximum cooperation with the international investigation into the killing of Al-Hariri and will be able to prove itself not guilty of any wrong-doing. He also argued that the increasing tension in Lebanon during the past few months could be attributed to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. One Cairo-based Lebanese diplomat insists that this is the core problem between Syria and Lebanon: the Syrian regime still fails to accept that Lebanon is an independent and sovereign country that can handle its own affairs, away from Syrian intervention. Any successful mediation between Syria and Lebanon, he said, would have to persuade the Syrian government to start accepting the fact that Lebanon is an independent state and not a Syrian follower. Reciprocal goodwill gestures between the two sides was stressed upon Al-Assad by Mubarak and Moussa alike. The first simultaneous move that both Beirut and Damascus needed to take, it was agreed, was to stop the exchange of media criticism.
