Syria forms diplomatic ties with Lebanon

But Israel skeptical relations will warm up after years of Syrian exploitation of Lebanon.

By HERB KEINON, AP
assad happy 248.88 (photo credit: AP)
assad happy 248.88
(photo credit: AP)
Israel took a "we'll believe it when we see it" attitude Tuesday to a decree by Syrian President Bashar Assad saying that Damascus would establish a diplomatic mission in Beirut. "We are looking at this with skepticism," said Yossi Levy, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman for the Israeli media. He said that this decree, following a similar announcement Assad made when he met French President Nicolas Sarkozy in July in Paris, is within the framework of Syria's efforts to curry favor with the West. The US and Lebanese anti-Syrian politicians have long demanded Syria establish official relations with Lebanon. The two countries have not had formal diplomatic ties since they gained independence from France in the 1940s. Lebanon and Syria agreed in August to establish ties and demarcate their contentious border. That landmark agreement, which came during an official visit by the Lebanese president to Damascus, and Tuesday's formal decree are widely viewed in Jerusalem as an effort on Syria's behalf to ends its international isolation. Assad's decree, carried by the official Syrian news agency SANA, said that a "diplomatic mission for the Syrian Arab Republic at the embassy level will be established in the Lebanese capital." It did not provide details or say when the embassy would open. But a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said it will happen before the end of the year. "There will be a Syrian embassy and an ambassador in Lebanon soon and before the end of the year," the official told The Associated Press. Syria has dominated Lebanon since the civil war there in the 1970s, when Syria sent its army into Lebanon and retained control for nearly 30 years. Ties between Syria and Lebanon unraveled when former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a 2005 car bombing that many Lebanese blame on Syria - a charge Syria denies. After Hariri's assassination, Syria caved to US-led international pressure and withdrew its troops from Lebanon. Establishing diplomatic relations remained a pressing demand by the anti-Syrian majority in Lebanon's parliament, which contended that the lack of official ties reflects Syria's refusal to recognize Lebanese sovereignty.