Beirut-Damascus Contacts Aim at Speeding up Cabinet Formation

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has stressed that he had good relations with Syria and would continually visit Damascus.

“I don’t want to snap back at the fabrications made about my last visit to Syria,” Jumblat told As Safir daily in remarks published Tuesday about reports that he had returned from Damascus empty handed.

“I want to insist on my ties with Syria and because Syria is in a crisis then I insist on the relations with it and I will constantly visit it,” the Druze chief said.

The newspaper said that Jumblat would visit the Syrian capital on Thursday for talks with Assistant Vice President Maj. Gen. Mohammed Nassif.

He made his remarks as the aides of the Lebanese speaker and the Hizbullah leader respectively MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hussein Khalil returned from a visit to Damascus.

According to An Nahar newspaper, the two men have brought with them messages from Syrian officials on the need to speed up the formation of the new government.