May 18, 2010 - Now Lebanon - Hariri begins his Arab tour

Prime Minister Saad Hariri (L) meets with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz in Riyadh on Monday. (Dalati & Nohra)
Prime Minister Saad Hariri traveled to Saudi Arabia on Monday as part of an Arab tour ahead of his scheduled meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington on May 24.

He met with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz to discuss developments in the region and the prospects for strengthening bilateral ties, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The PM will today meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after his visit with Kuwaiti Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.

Hariri said that the sheikh’s visit to Lebanon is “an additional entrance to strengthen the cooperation between our two countries and root deeply the present understandings that flow in this direction in a positive and open way.”

Speaking to the KUNA Kuwaiti news agency, Hariri said that Lebanon has not forgotten Kuwait’s assistance toward achieving political stability.

Meanwhile, President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Judge Antonio Cassese told The Daily Star newspaper in an interview published on Monday that a list of charges in the case of former PM Rafik Hariri’s assassination will be presented at the end of 2010.

He quoted STL Prosecutor General Daniel Bellemare as saying the list may be presented between September and October.

However, he declined to give details about the list, saying that Bellamare had not informed the judicial council about the identity of any of the accused.

In regional news, on Monday, three-way talks in Tehran between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan culminated in the signing of an agreement that would send low-enriched Iranian uranium to Turkey in exchange for enriched reactor fuel.

The agreement stipulates that Iran will formally notify the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the deal within one week.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters that it would then be up to the IAEA to inform "the Vienna group" – the United States, France and Russia – of the proposal. Should the Vienna group accept the deal, the new accord says Iran would deliver the uranium to Turkey within a month and would expect to receive the nuclear fuel from the world powers within a year.

The new agreement responds IAEA demands, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Monday. However, White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs said that the US would not halt or slow its drive for toughened sanctions on Iran.

-NOW Lebanon