Turkish prime minister holds talks with Lebanese leaders on political crisis
By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer

Associated Press Worldstream
January 3, 2007 Wednesday 12:46 PM GMT

BEIRUT Lebanon — Turkey’s prime minister on Wednesday began talks
with rival Lebanese leaders on the country’s deepening political
crisis during a one-day visit to the embattled country.

Shortly after his arrival, Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Lebanese
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora whose Western-backed government is facing
increasing pressure in the form of street protests led by Hezbollah
and other opposition groups.

The visit came as the growing political and sectarian tensions among
Lebanese factions threaten to tear the country apart. It also came
more than a week after Arab League chief Amr Moussa said that his
efforts have failed to reach a solution to the crisis.

Tensions between pro- and anti-Syrian groups erupted when six
pro-Hezbollah Cabinet ministers resigned in November after Saniora
rejected their demand for a new national unity government that would
give Hezbollah and its allies a veto power on key Cabinet decisions.

Erdogan’s visit is primarily aimed at expressing support for Saniora’s
Cabinet, a Lebanese government official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak to the media, said Erdogan’s talks with Lebanese
officials will cover "the situation in Lebanon, developments in the
region and implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701." He was referring
to the U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution that ended the
34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in the summer.

Erdogan met Saniora who has been living at his office complex in
central Beirut amid a tight security cordon near the thousands of
Hezbollah supporters and allies camping nearby.

Erdogan also was scheduled to fly by a Turkish military helicopter
to southern Lebanon to inspect Turkish troops serving with the U.N.
peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL before meeting in late afternoon
with President Emile Lahoud and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri,
a Hezbollah ally.

Some 260 Turkish troops, deployed near the southern port city of Tyre,
are helping rebuild bridges and roads damaged in last summer’s war
between Hezbollah and Israel. Turkish officials said that the total
number of Turkish personnel in Lebanon would ultimately reach 681,
including sailors and engineers.

Ahead of Erdogan’s arrival, about 100 Armenian citizens, waving
Lebanese flags, gathered outside the Beirut airport to protest
his visit.

"No to Turkish mediation in Lebanon," and read some of the placards
carried by the protesters. Other leaflets condemned Turkey over alleged
brutalities against Armenians by Turkish troops in the region nearly
a century ago.

In October, thousands from Lebanon’s 80,000-100,000 strong Armenian
community rallied in downtown Beirut to protest Turkish participation
in the U.N. peacekeeping force because they blame Turkey’s Ottoman
rulers for the mass killing of Armenians in the early 20th century.

Turkey, a U.S. ally and NATO’s only predominantly Muslim member,
has close ties to both Israel and Arab states.