Syria asks for postponement of Shabaa Farms demarcation

Syria has asked Lebanon to postpone considering the position of the Shabaa Farms in south Lebanon regarding border demarcation between the two states until the Israeli forces withdraw from it.

A Lebanese source said that the Lebanese prime minister Fouad Sinioura received a message from his Syrian peer Naji Otari to this effect, proposing the postponement of the border demarcation in South Lebanon until after the Israeli withdrawal from Shabaa Farms.

Shabaa Farms are currently occupied by Israel. Israel claims that Shabaa Farms belong to Syria, while Lebanon and Syria had said that they are Lebanese lands.

The message by Otari was free from any mention of the Lebanese ownership of the farms in contrary to what Syria had been confirming verbally.

In this respect Sinioura stressed Lebanon's desire to establish "excellent relations with Syria," considering that the telephone call his Syrian peer made with him on Monday was "positive step" though it came late.

The statements of the Lebanese official came after he made a written address on the occasion of Lebanon's independence ( national day) anniversary in which he asked Syria to deal with his country as an independent state. He said that Damascus has to "deal with Lebanon as an independent state, and that its independence will not be damaging for Syria."

In the same context, the Lebanese minister of labor Tarrad Hamdeh said that there is no border problem between Lebanon and Syria, and that fabricating such a problem is a result of the international pressures, especially the American one, on both Syria and Lebanon. He added that there is no justification to talk about this fabricated issue.