Lebanon's president: don't send fighters to Syria

Source : Al Akhbar English

Lebanon must prevent fighters from crossing into Syria, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman said after Damascus said it would respond to cross-border infiltrations.

Sleiman made the remarks while meeting with the Lebanese community in the Ivory Coast during an official visit, according to a statement from his office on Saturday.

Lebanon's stability depends "on all of us ... not sending militants to Syria and not receiving them," he said, adding "we must commit ourselves to neutrality."

Sleiman said he had tasked Lebanon's army with "the arrest of any militants intending to fight (in Syria), whether for the opposition or not."

His comments came after Syria said on Thursday that its forces would fire into Lebanon if "terrorist gangs" continued to infiltrate the country.

"These past 36 hours, armed terrorist gangs have infiltrated Syrian territory in large numbers from Lebanon," the Syrian foreign ministry said, in a message quoted by official news agency SANA.

"Syrian forces are showing restraint by not striking these gangs inside Lebanese territory to prevent them crossing into Syria, but this will not go on indefinitely," it said in a message to its Lebanese counterpart.

The UN Security Council on Thursday expressed "grave concern" about cross-border attacks.

A Lebanese government source, speaking to AFP on Saturday, said Beirut took the warning "very seriously" and that "intensive consultations are underway to find the best way to control the border."

Beirut has officially pledged neutrality in the violence engulfing its neighbor, but has found itself increasingly embroiled in the civil war.

Lebanon's Western-backed March 14 opposition coalition, which includes a radical Islamist component, backs the Syrian rebels. Syria’s conflict entered its third year on Friday.

The government-led March 8 coalition, which includes Hezbollah, stands by the Syrian government.

Iran to scrap visas for Egyptians

Source : Vesti Kavkaza

Iran will lift visa requirements for Egyptian tourists and businessmen, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told Ashark Alawsat.

A declaration will be made today during the final session of the OIC summit in Cairo.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the first high-ranking Iranian official to visit Egypt in the past 33 years. He invited Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to visit Tehran.

UN Chief Blasts Israeli Settlement Activity

Source : RIA Novosti

UNITED NATIONS, February 6 (RIA Novosti) - Israel’s settlement activity on Palestinian territories remains the key obstacle to the resolution of the Middle East conflict, the UN secretary general said.

“Settlement activity is a major obstacle to the two-State solution and must cease immediately,” Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday at the opening of the 2013 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

“I repeat that all settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law and cannot prejudge the outcome of final status negotiations,” he said.

“Negotiations must result in an agreement ending the conflict and the occupation that began in 1967 and leading to two States - Israel and Palestine - living side-by-side in peace, security and mutual recognition of each other’s legitimate rights, including self- determination,” Ban said.

In November 2012, the General Assembly recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state.

The Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of West Bank, East Jerusalem, partially occupied by Israel, and the Hamas- controlled Gaza Strip and want Israel to pull from the Palestinian territories occupied after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to raise the issue of Jerusalem, which it says is the indivisible capital of the Jewish state.

China Renews Stance on Peaceful Solution to Crisis in Syria

Source : SANA, Syria

BEIJING, (SANA) – Syria and China on Tuesday exchanged viewpoints and visions about the crisis in Syria and means for solving it.

Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Faisal Mikdad, held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Zhai Jun, at Chinese Foreign Ministry HQ in Beijing in which he reviewed the political program to solve the crisis in Syria and the executive steps taken by the Syrian government in this regard.

The Chinese diplomat renewed his country's adherence to the necessity of finding peaceful solutions to the crisis in Syria according to UN Charter, the international law and Geneva Statement, without allowing any foreign intervention in Syria's domestic affairs.

Mikdad expressed his gratitude to the Chinese side for the stances adopted by Beijing regarding Syria.

Later in the meeting, the two sides reviewed issues of mutual concerns regarding the bilateral relations and means of upgrading them in different domains.

The talks were attended by Assistant Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Ahmad Arnous, Syria's Ambassador in Beijing, Imad Moustafa and Director General of the Department of West Asian and North African Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Chen Xiaodong.