Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said here on Monday that he will visit Syria this week for discussions on the exchange of ambassadors between the two neighbors, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.
The Lebanese foreign minister said in a statement that the exchange of ambassadors will be in the near future, adding it will take place by the end of this year or early next year, according to the report.
On the military build-up of Syrian troops on the Lebanese border, Salloukh said security coordination must be conducted between any two neighboring countries in order to prevent the smuggling of goods and weapons.
In late September, the Lebanese army said Syria has deployed around 10,000 special forces along the northern border with Lebanon, adding that Damascus stressed the move was linked to a crackdown on smugglers.
Syria and Lebanon agreed in August to establish diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level, following a ground-breaking summit between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman.
Syria and Lebanon have not established diplomatic relations since their independence from the French colonial rule in the 1940s.
Bilateral ties between the two countries have been chilled since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, which many blamed Damascus for being behind, but Syria denied any role.
In the aftermath of the assassination, Syria, under enormous pressure, pulled its troops out of Lebanon in 2005, ending its nearly three-decade-long military presence in its small neighbor.
Damascus was accused of interfering in the Lebanese affairs and responsible for a series of assassinations of anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon afterwards, which Syria also denied.
The tension between Syria and Lebanon abated after rival Lebanese parties secured an agreement in the Qatari capital of Doha in May to elect Michel Suleiman as president and establish a new government. Damascus was deemed to have played a constructive role in reaching the agreement.
Source:Xinhua
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