Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa has assured officials in Lebanon that an international peace conference for the Middle East region would not be held without the participation of Syria and Lebanon, Lebanese diplomatic sources said on Tuesday.
The Lebanese sources told the Kuwait News Agency that the Syrian Minister, during talks held with Lebanese officials Monday affirmed that such a meeting would not be held without the participation of the two countries and that there would be no initiatives or peace outside the framework of the Arab peace initiative, which was approved during the Arab summit, held in Beirut.
Al-Sharaa noted that Damascus would not back down from supporting the resistance against the occupation and affirmed that the term "rejecting violence," included in a statement following the recent Saudi-Syrian-Egyptian summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, was intended to demonstrate the rejection of all operations directed against civilians regardless of their nationality.
Leaders of the three Arab states renounced violence, condemned Israeli massacres in Jenin and affirmed commitment to the 1991 Madrid peace conference. The Arab peace initiative envisages normalization of relations with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from Arab territories, occupied in the 1967 Mid-East war. (Albawaba.com)
