Iran FM in Syria for Lebanon talks

AFP: Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, arrived in Damascus on Sunday for talks with Syrian officials on the political crisis in Lebanon, a diplomatic source said.

DAMASCUS, January 23, 2011 (AFP) – Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, arrived in Damascus on Sunday for talks with Syrian officials on the political crisis in Lebanon, a diplomatic source said.

The source told AFP that Salehi was to meet on Monday with President Bashar al-Assad, whose country and strategic ally Iran are backers of Lebanon’s powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s unity government under Prime Minister Saad Hariri collapsed on January 12 when 11 ministers from Hezbollah and its allies resigned.

The walkout capped a long-running dispute over a UN-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri, the incumbent’s father.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said he expects the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon to implicate high-ranking members of his militant movement in the Hariri murder and has warned of grave repercussions.