Mansour Heads to Cairo for Arab Foreign Ministers Meeting on Syria

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour is expected to travel to Cairo on Thursday to participate in the Arab foreign ministers emergency meeting on Syria in light of the end of the deadline granted to the state to implement reform.

On Lebanon’s stance on the ministers’ decision, Mansour told the National News Agency: “We will wait and see what step they will take and then we will make ours.”

The meeting was scheduled after the Syrian government refused to allow Arab League observers to travel to Syria to assess the violence in the country in light of the regime crackdown against anti-regime protesters.

The regime had proposed amendments to the Arab mission, which were consequently rejected by the League.

The Cairo meeting will address the next steps after the Arab bloc rejected Damascus’ amendments.

Mansour is then scheduled to travel to Cyprus to meet with his Cypriot counterpart Erato Kozakou Marcoullis to discuss issues of contention over the demarcation of the Lebanese-Cypriot maritime border.

The minister later held talks with U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly.