Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi King Abdullah stressed on Thursday the importance of forming a national unity government in Lebanon as a basis for stability.
The two leaders, speaking after meeting at the end of a two-day visit to Syria by King Abdullah, underlined "the importance of the agreement amongst the Lebanese, who (are likely to) find common ground to form a government of national unity as a cornerstone of stability," the state-run SANA news agency said.
There is much hope in Lebanon that reconciliation between Syria and Saudi Arabia will have a positive effect on attempts to form a government, an effort that has been stalled since the June 7 parliamentary elections.
King Abdullah's visit to Damascus was the first by a Saudi ruler since the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The two Arab countries have been at odds over several regional issues, including Syria's close ties with Iran. They have recently made moves towards a rapprochement with three meetings between Abdullah and Assad in the past two years.
The leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan boycotted an Arab summit held in Damascus last year, accusing Syria of working to destabilize Lebanon.
Relations have improved since then, with Saudi Arabia appointing an ambassador to Damascus in July, a post that had been vacant since 2008.
In another sign of improving ties, the two regional powerhouses agreed to promote bilateral trade and investment, SANA said.
Syrian Finance Minister Mohammed al-Hussein and his Saudi counterpart, Ibrahim Assaf, said the volume of trade, currently only two billion dollars a year, will "begin growing in the coming days," the news agency said.
"We have decided to remove the difficulties hindering commercial exchanges, notably the taxes recently imposed by Syria on products exported to Saudi Arabia," such as olive oil and ceramics, Hussein was quoted as saying |
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