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Kouchner hails eased tensions

Posted on: Mon May 24, 2010

BEIRUT: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Sunday welcomed an easing of tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbours, as he visited Beirut and Damascus to urge respect for a 2006 ceasefire in Lebanon.    

 Nobody is speaking of tension any more, and so this tension has eased, he told a news conference in Beirut after talks with leaders in Lebanon and Syria that left him rather reassured. Kouchner attributed the new climate to the launch of US-mediated indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as to a clarification of Iran s controversial nuclear programme.    

 We cannot be resigned to a constant state of tension, even if it is decreasing, he told journalists on his plane to Beirut after a meeting in Damascus earlier on Sunday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.    

In Beirut, Kouchner held talks with President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Saad Hariri before continuing on to Cairo to meet his Egyptian and Spanish counterparts, Ahmed Abul Gheit and Miguel Angel Moratinos.    

 Minister Kouchner informed the president that his regional tour aims to ease recent tension, which began to decline over the past few days especially as concerns Israel s threats, Sleiman s office said after the meeting.    

France s foreign minister, briefing reporters travelling with him, renewed an appeal for all sides to respect UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended a devastating month-long war in 2006 between Israel and Hizbullah.    

The resolution bans the supply of arms to the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hizbullah.    In Damascus, Kouchner expressed France s concern over Hizbullah s weaponry, to which Assad gave assurances it was not in the interests of Damascus, Tehran or Hizbullah to trigger a new conflict, a French diplomatic source said.    

The source, asking not to be named, said that France as a peace broker also wanted to encourage Syria not to facilitate the delivery of arms to Hizbullah.     Israeli President Shimon Peres sparked controversy last month when he accused Syria of supplying Hizbullah with Scud missiles, a charge Damascus has staunchly rejected.    

In his meeting with Kouchner, Assad accused the West of overlooking Israeli violations in the region. The region has changed and the West s policy in the area is no longer acceptable, keeping silent over Israeli violations is no longer acceptable, Syria s official news agency SANA quoted Assad as saying.

Courtesy : The News