Syria cancels meeting with Lebanese delegation

Syria today canceled the meeting that was scheduled to take place on Wednesday in Damascus with a Lebanese delegation, reported Al-Manar TV reported on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri had told the ministers during Monday’s cabinet session that a Lebanese economic delegation would travel to Syria on his behalf to negotiate prior agreements between Beirut and Damascus as well as sign new ones.

According to Al-Manar, Syria criticized the Lebanese delegation, claiming it lacked experts as well as appropriate members and requested it include assistant-ministers ( directors) or people of similar rank.

Observers described Syria’s behavior as ” arm-twisting ” targeting the Lebanese prime minister … it was Hariri’s idea after all and the delegation was supposed to make preparations for his visit to Syria which is supposed to take place within weeks .

“Obviously Hariri would not be sending a delegation to Syria , if he did not think it was qualified to represent him”, one observer told Ya Libnan