A series of meetings among high officials in Lebanon, Syria and Iran began on Sunday and continued on Monday. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived today in Damascus for talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Vice President Farouk Shara. During their meetings, the three are scheduled to discuss developments in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. They will also discuss the recent American attack in Syria, which was vehemently denounced by Iran. Mottaki is also expected to meet with leaders of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, whose offices are located in the Syrian capital. The meetings precede reconciliation talks scheduled for November 9 between the various Palestinian factions, including Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad. Another series of meetings takes place today, as Hamas's Political Bureau Chief Khalid Mashaal visits Lebanon, where he is scheduled to meet with Lebanon's leadership, including President Michel Suleiman, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Mashaal may also meet with leader of Lebanon's anti-Syrian bloc, Sa'ad A-Din Al-Hariri. Hariri has more then once blamed the Syrian regime for its alleged involvement in the killing of his father, former Lebanese premier Rafiq Al-Hariri. He recently held talks with Nasrallah in an attempt to solve the political standstill in Lebanon, ahead of next year's parliamentary elections. On Sunday former Lebanese president Emil Lahoud visited Teheran, where he met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mottaki. The three discussed recent regional developments and may also have spoken about last week's comments by Hossein Hamedani, deputy commander of the Basij militia. In a statement published on a website close to the country's elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Hamedani was quoted as saying, "Today, not only our armed forces are self sufficient but the freedom armies of the region get part of their weaponry from us." Iran has in the past applied this description to Palestinian groups such as the Islamist Hamas and the fundamentalist Islamic Jihad, as well as the Lebanese-based Shi'ite terror organization Hizbullah. All of these groups have vowed to fight Israel on behalf of Iran.
