Turkish PM urges dialogue to end Lebanon crisis
By Nagib Khazzaka

Agence France Presse — English
January 3, 2007 Wednesday 4:37 PM GMT

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Wednesday for
dialogue amongst Lebanese, during a day trip to Beirut to meet Lebanese
leaders and Turkish UN peacekeeping troops.

Coming out of a meeting with Lebanese counterpart Fuad Siniora, Erdogan
encouraged a peaceful resolution of a political crisis triggered in
November by the walkout of six pro-Syrians from Siniora’s cabinet
demanding a new government.

"We favour domestic peace and political unity amongst Lebanese,
and we believe that dialogue is the only way to resolve the crisis,"
Erdogan told reporters.

Asked if Turkey might mediate between the government and its
Hezbollah-led opposition, Erdogan replied that it was "ready to play
such a role if all sides ask for it to do so".

"We have contacted all internal and regional parties so as to favour
a resumption of dialogue," he said, including Iran and Syria, both
of which provide support to Hezbollah.

Besides the prime minister, Erdogan was to see President Emile Lahoud,
parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri and parliamentary majority leader
Saad Hariri during his day-long stay.

Hariri is the son of former prime minister Rafic Hariri, whose
assassination in a Beirut bomb attack in February 2005 is the subject
of an ongoing UN probe that has implicated senior Syrian officials
and Lebanese accomplices.

The makeup of an international tribunal due to be set up to try those
accused of Hariri’s murder is one of the main sticking points between
Siniora’s Western-backed government and the opposition, which includes
some Christians.

"Syria and Iran are not opposed to the international tribunal but
they do question certain points of its statute and give priority to
forming a government," Erdogan said, without elaborating.

Siniora said he had "examined the question of simultaneity of the
questions of the tribunal and the government" while rejecting that
"one party imposes its point of view on the other".

"We are ready to look at observations concerning the tribunal, on
condition it is not emptied of its essence," said Siniora.

"We want to have good relations with Syria and Iran, but they must
be based on mutual respect and non-interference, and Lebanon must
not be used as a theatre for others’ conflicts," said Siniora.

Erdogan said he also intended to see Mohammed Raad, the leader of
Hezbollah’s parliamentary group.

Later Wednesday, Erdogan hopped onto a military helicopter for a short
flight south to Smaia, near Tyre, 80 kilometres (45 miles) from Beirut,
where the headquarters of the Turkish UN contingent is situated.

Turkey assigned 261 soldiers to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon
(UNIFIL) in October, helping to enforce a ceasefire that halted last
summer’s devastating month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Shiite movement Hezbollah has been leading a sit-in protest in
central Beirut since December 1 calling for Siniora to make way for
a government of national unity.

In a statement, the Turkish prime minister’s office said that during
his stay, Erdogan would be underlining Turkey’s contribution to
UNIFIL and the help it could give to Lebanon after last year’s
Israel-Hezbollah war.

Some 100 Lebanese of Armenian heritage were seen demonstrating
Wednesday morning near Beirut airport against Erdogan’s visit. Turkey
refuses to recognize the mass killings of Armenians from 1915 and
1917 as genocide.