Lebanon and Syria agree to establish full diplomatic ties

[bemildred]

Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman agreed on Wednesday to establish full diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level, a Syrian official said.

The two countries announced last month that they intended to open diplomatic relations for the first time. Wednesday's agreement formally set those ties on the highest level.

"The two presidents...have instructed their foreign ministers to take the necessary steps in this regard, starting from today," Buthaina Shaaban, an adviser to President Assad said Suleiman met Syrian President Assad in Damascus on Wednesday in a visit to improve bilateral ties that have thawed since the recent end of a political crisis in Lebanon.

It was Suleiman's first visit to Syria since his election in May as part of a Qatari-mediated deal that defused a bitter political conflict between an anti-Syrian majority coalition and an alliance of groups backed by Damascus.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1011272.html