The Syrian vice president, Abdel Halim Khaddam, has had talks in Beirut with the Lebanese president, Emile Lahoud.
It is Mr Khaddam’s first visit to Lebanon since President Lahoud’s election in 1998. He also met the Parliamentary Speaker, Nabih Berri, a strong backer of Syria’s role in Lebanon, and the Prime Minister, Rafiq Hariri, who has been more ambivalent on the subject. Mr Khaddam was in charge of Lebanese affairs for Damascus for more than twenty years until he was replaced by the Syrian intelligence chief, General Ghazi Kaanan, who accompanied him on the visit.
Syria has some thirty-five thousand troops in Lebanon, and plays a decisive role in the country’s foreign policy.
