Lebanon Foreign Minister Creates Stir Over Syria
Lebanon’s foreign minister, Adnan Mansour, draws criticism from both his own government and the Gulf states by calling for the reinstatement of Assad’s Syria in the Arab League, writes Elie Hajj.
The political memory of the Lebanese people is too short. They are easily agitated and react strongly to and show extensive interest in any event. No matter what the topic is, it takes them three days to forget it and move on.
This is precisely what happened with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Adnan Mansour, who caused an uproar at the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers in Cairo by calling for the reinstatement of Bashar al-Assad’s Syria in the Arab League.
The position taken by the Lebanese minister during a meeting of Arab ministers in Cairo on Wednesday came as a surprise, as the ministers were looking to draft a request to the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces to form an executive body to occupy Syria's seat at the Arab League. The coalition would also participate in the league’s organizations and boards, in order to take part in the Arab Summit in Doha on the 26th and 27th of this month.
The Lebanese minister took an individual initiative and made a speech calling on the Arabs to reverse the decision to suspend Syria's membership in the league. He abstained from voting, however, on the decision to make the opposition the representatives of Syria [in the Arab League], pursuant to the Lebanese government's “self-distancing” policy regarding the Syrian conflict. The Lebanese are divided over the conflict in neighboring Syria, which threatens to bring tension to a country whose capital, Beirut, is less than two hours away from Damascus by car.
