On al-Assad's visit to Lebanon

The Qatari daily al-Watan said on Saturday quoting Syrian and Lebanese sources which it described as well-informed that contacts are being made between Damascus and Beirut to set a final date for the important visit President Bashar al-Assad in intending to make to Lebanon.

The sources expressed their conviction that the winning of the Israeli extremist Ariel Sharon of the Israeli Cabinet and the consequences of this step of dramatic changes in the region and the increasing Lebanese fears of the possibility that Lebanon will be subjected to further Israeli pressures and aggressions will accelerate the date of this visit in order to strengthen the track of security and political coordination between Syria and Lebanon to withstand the dangers of this phase and its adverse impact on the two states' joint security and on the stability in the Middle East region.

The sources added that President Bashar al-Assad has brilliantly succeeded in pushing many Lebanese sides to withdraw the file of the Syrian military in Lebanon from the debate. A matter which opened the doors before the two states to avoid many several collapses, which foreign forces tried to invest to practice more pressure on Damascus and to disturb its regional position upon facing any political test imposed on the new leadership.

The paper added that analysts say that the detailed statements made by President Bashar al-Assad concerning the situation in Lebanon and all details of the relations between Syria and Lebanon have proved that the Syrian President seizes all papers of the Lebanese conditions, including the role to be played by the Lebanese national resistance.