Iran FM postpones visit after Ahmadinejad’s remarks on Syria: sources

Daily Star - Iran FM postpones visit after Ahmadinejad’s remarks on Syria: sources
A trip by the Iranian foreign minister to Beirut has been postponed because of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s condemnation of the “killings” in key ally Syria, diplomatic sources told The Daily Star Monday.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry confirmed Ali Akbar Salehi’s two-day trip to Beirut had been postponed, with no new date set, but did not elaborate on the reason for the postponement.

Salehi was due to meet with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour during his two-day visit to Lebanon Monday-Tuesday.

Diplomatic sources told The Daily Star the visit had been cancelled after Ahmadinejad criticized the seven-month bloody crackdown on protesters in Syria. The trip was also due to include Syria and other Arab countries, visits which have also been cancelled, the source said.

“Nobody has the right to kill others, neither the government nor the opponents,” Ahmadinejad told Fareed Zakaria of CNN in an interview broadcast over the weekend.

"We are going to make greater efforts to encourage both the government of Syria and the other side, all parties, to reach an understanding,” he added.

The diplomatic sources described the Iranian president’s remarks as “unprecedented.”

“Damascus, unsatisfied with Ahmadinejad’s position, has informed Iran’s foreign minister through diplomatic channels that Syria has no desire to welcome him during his upcoming tour of the region,” one diplomatic source told The Daily Star.

“For this reason, the trip was cancelled altogether,” he added.

The source said reports being circulated by the Iranian Embassy in Beirut trying to link the cancellation of the visit to the absence of Sleiman and Mikati from the country are inaccurate, and that the cancellation had been made before Prince Sultan’s death.

Sleiman and Mikati are traveling to Saudi Arabia this week to offer condolences over the death of the Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud.

Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, told The Daily Star such a decision on the part of Syria would not be surprising. “Of course, [it is likely] Syria would cancel such a visit because it was upset by Ahmadinejad’s statements,” Khashan said.

“Syria’s threshold for criticism of its regime is nil,” added Khashan. He said both Iran and Hezbollah are “changing their course” in case the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad is toppled.