07 November 2016•Update: 08 November 2016
By Wassim Seif al-Din
BEIRUT
Lebanon’s newly-elected President Michel Aoun on Monday met with an envoy from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Beirut.
In a statement, the Lebanese Presidency said Aoun had received Syrian Minister for Presidential Affairs Mansour Azzam at Beirut’s Baabda Palace.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Azzam said he had conveyed a congratulatory message from Assad and the Syrian people to the new Lebanese president, while hailing the deep relations between Syria and Lebanon.
"Our mutual relations are based on common interests -- namely security and stability," Azzam said.
According to Azzam, Aoun, too, had lauded the "deep ties between the Syrian and Lebanese peoples, as well as the close personal relationship between Aoun and the Syrian president".
"We have common enemies, including Israel and the terrorist takfiri [extremist] groups," Azzam asserted. "Sharing the same interests is a requirement for the stability of both our countries."
Asked if the Syrian regime planned to send a message of congratulations to Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on the latter’s appointment last week, Azzam said: "We support the formation of the Lebanese government; everything has its time."
Monday’s visit comes shortly ahead of a planned visit to Lebanon by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif -- whose country is a staunch supporter of the Assad regime -- to congratulate Aoun on his election last week.
Aoun, an 81-year old former army general and leader of Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), was elected by parliament last Monday as the country’s 13th president, ending a presidential vacuum that had lasted more than two and a half years.
For the last several years, Lebanon’s political arena has remained sharply divided between supporters of the March 14 alliance -- which backs the armed opposition in next-door Syria -- and the pro-Assad March 8 alliance, which includes Hezbollah and Aoun’s FPM.
