Jalili continues Lebanon visit

Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili continued his visit to Lebanon heading from Ain El-Tineh with his accompanying delegation to the government headquarters at The Grand Serail. In his meeting with the Lebanese Premier Najib Mikati, he reiterated former stances declared at Ain El-Tineh following his meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Foreign Affairs Minister Adan Mansour. The two sides discussed the situation in Syria and stressed the “importance of stability” and the “necessity of peace, since instability would affect all countries in the region”. The Iranian delegation confirmed their commitment to “cooperation with others to come out of this bottleneck” pointing out that “foreign interference in Syrian affairs doesn’t help ending the violence, on the contrary”. Professor Jalili invited “30 countries dedicated to supporting Kofi Anan’s initiative to attend a conference in Tehran on this issue, to support the Syrian people and put an end to the violence.” Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour clarified that “President Michel Suleiman and Premier Najib Mikati’s decision so far is to refrain from participation based on the policy of remaining impartial.” The Iranian official walked out of the meeting without giving any statements. Following the meeting, Jalili said in a statement that “I would like to express my deep pleasure with this great opportunity today to visit Lebanon, the land of resistance.” He added that “My first visit to Lebanon came directly after the end of the Gaza attack,  I remember when the Palestinian people were facing the cruellest and most criminal Israeli aggression to date, we saw some parties preventing even the delivery of water to Palestine and Gaza. The people of this region cannot forget the practices of the Mubarak regime, this subordinate regime which walked parallel to the military aggression in Gaza, explicitly and publicly preventing the delivery of water, food, and simple humanitarian aid to the besieged, struggling Palestinian people in Gaza”.