Lebanon welcomes appointment of Syrian ambassador

Mar 24, 2009, 21:43 GMT

Beirut - Lebanon welcomed late Tuesday the appointment of a new Syrian ambassador to Lebanon.

Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said the ambassador, Ali Abdel Karim Ali, would arrive in Beirut after leaving his current post in Kuwait.

'Lebanon welcomes the new Syrian ambassador Ali Abdel Karim Ali anytime in Beirut to assume his duties,' Salloukh said in an interview with the Lebanese Markaziya news agency. He did not disclose when the appointment was made, but said Lebanon's approval had been sent to Damascus.

He added that Lebanon's first ambassador to Syria, Michel Khoury, would assume his responsibilities in Damascus by mid-April.

Lebanon opened its first embassy in Syria last Monday, five months after the neighbours established their first diplomatic ties since their independence from France in 1943. Syria opened its embassy in Lebanon in December 2008. The two neighboring countries restored their diplomatic ties in August, when they agreed to demarcate their borders.

The new Syrian ambassador to Lebanon has been Damascus' ambassador to Kuwait since November 2004 and has also served as the head of Syrian state radio and television and the official SANA news agency.

The assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 aggravated relations between the two countries and lead to the departure of Syrian forces from its tiny neighbour, following 30 years of military presence in Lebanon.

The pro-Western parliamentary majority have accused Syria of masterminding the assassination of Hariri, a charge Syria has denied.

A special tribunal at The Hague began work on March 1 to try Hariri's suspected assassins.