Suleiman Hopes Syrian Officials Not Linked to Samaha Case: I Enjoy Good Ties with Assad
President Michel Suleiman hoped on Friday that no Syrian officials are linked to the attacks that were being planned in Lebanon by former minister Michel Samaha, reported As Safire newspaper on Saturday.
“I enjoy good ties with Syrian President Bashara Assad. I have nothing to hide. What I am most concerned about is the discovery of explodes in Samaha’s possession,” he said in response to being asked if the Syrian president had contacted him after the former minister’s arrest.
“I didn’t expect him to call and he didn’t,” he continued.
“I hope that no Syrian official is linked to the affair and that it was devised by non-official individuals,” he continued.
“I have seen the explosives. It was a terrifying sight,” declared the president.
On March 8 camp criticism over his request that Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour file a complaint to Syria over its violations of Lebanon’s border, Suleiman said that Syria had first complained to the United Nations over Lebanese violations.
It sent Lebanon some six or seven complaints while Lebanon only now presented it with its own complaint, stated the president.
“Why does Syria have the right to complain against us at the U.N., while we can’t do the same?” he wondered.
He stressed his good ties with Syrian officials, but added: “Aren’t we allowed to exercise our rights?”
Government deputy Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Sami Sader charged last Saturday Samaha and Syrian security Chief Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk with forming a group to commit crimes in Lebanon.
The two were also charged with plotting to assassinate political and religious figures.
Syrian troops have repeatedly carried out incursions into border regions in northern Lebanon, saying that they were pursing Syrian army defectors.
Syrian refugees have flocked into Lebanon in light of their country’s crackdown against anti-regime protests that broke out in March 2011.
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