Jordan - Lebanon decide to increase politica,, economic cooperation
Jordan, Politics, 11/1/2002

A joint statement issued simultaneously in Beirut and Amman said that Jordan and Lebanon have decided yesterday in Beirut to strengthen bilateral political, economic, trade and media relations.

The Jordanian prime minister Ali Abul Ragheb who arrived in Beirut on Thursday morning signed with the Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri a protocol which states to form a higher committee under the chairmanship of the two governments premiers.

The statement said that the committee will discuss its first meeting in the second half of 2003 in Amman.

Al-Hariri and Abu al-Ragheb held a close door meeting lasted for one hours before they had attended a meeting for a Jordanian- Lebanese ministerial committee during which some 11 agreements and protocols were signed.

These agreements state to found a free trade area, encouraging the investment and canceling double taxation as well as maintaining scientific cooperation in the industrial fields and cooperation in the area of the media and establishing joint chambers of economy.

At the political level, Beirut and Amman agreed to continue "efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on international legitimacy resolutions and the land for peace formula." The two sides expressed their total rejection of the threat to attacking Iraq or using the military force against it or undermining its people and their territorial integrity and interference in its internal affairs.

The statement continued that Jordan and Lebanon "confirm they will not permit the use of their lands for launching an aggression against Iraq."

Both Beirut and Amman stressed "condemnation of all forms of terrorism," stressing the need to "make a distinction between terrorist acts and national resistance against the Israeli occupation." Abul Ragheb is accompanied in his visit by the ministers of the information, agriculture, and industry Muhammad al-Edwan, Tarrad al-Qasem and Salah al-Bashir, respectively.

Yesterday, Abul Ragheb met with the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud.

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