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PARIS, Jan 4 (KUNA) -- France confirmed here Friday a freeze in "political" contacts with Syria on the Lebanese question, but stressed that other "diplomatic" ties were being pursued and would be unaffected by recent tensions.

Officials here have expressed exasperation at what they call Syrian foot-dragging in the process to elect a "consensus" presidential candidate in Lebanon and to modify the constitution, a process that has been attempted 10 times but has not managed to garner a broad majority among the 14 parties in the Beirut parliament.

But Syria has counterattacked by saying it is French ineptitude at convincing its Lebanese "allies," notably the parliamentary majority, to accept a new political horizon that has been agreed in consultations between Damascus and Paris.

The French failure has stymied the efforts to end the political and institutional impasse in Lebanon, Syria says, adding it has documents in its possession that indicate agreement had been reached with France on the current crisis. France has declined to confirm the existence of such documents.

In reaction to the French decision to put the Lebanese file on ice with regards to Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Waleed Muallem said earlier this week that it was Syria that was halting cooperation with France, not the reverse, as had been announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy on December 20 in Cairo.

"The contacts at political level between our two countries have ended until Syria shows good faith and a president with a large consensus is elected in Lebanon," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said Friday.

"Our diplomatic relations with Syria are not called into question by this decision," she added.

Thus, it appears that Syria, which was practically in total diplomatic isolation after Sarkozys election - except for contacts via the French ambassador in Damascus - is now only isolated on the Lebanese issue, while it has recovered an even more favourable position on the diplomatic front than before, even having done nothing to improve things on the Lebanese front, according to some observers here.

France has sought to play down the importance of the communications channel opened up with Damascus in order to convince Syria to influence developments with its "allies" in Lebanon.

At least three known telephone calls from Sarkozy to President Bashar Al-Assad and several visits by the French leaders key diplomatic advisors, including those by Chief of Staff Claude Gueant and Diplomatic Czar Jean-David Levitte, illustrate the seriousness of the French initiative with the Syrians.

Its apparent failure has led to recriminations on both sides, led by French accusations against the Syrians for creating obstacles, and Syrian ripostes indicating it has documents setting out ground rules on a solution in Lebanon that Damascus says France was unable to enforce.

In particular, Muallem indicated the failure to get the Lebanese Majority to agree to a 30 percent blocking minority in parliament, even after this had been agreed between the French and the Syrians.

France has not denied but will not confirm the existence of any "entente" document with Syria or other formal written text governing Lebanons political process, which Paris maintains is firstly up to the Lebanese to settle.

"Our discussions with the actors of the Lebanese crisis aim to favour entente on the election of a president with broad support," the French official said.

"These contacts allow for the reaffirmation of the major principles which must dominate a solution to the Lebanese crisis, starting with the affirmation of the sovereignty and independence of this country," Andreani continued.

Nevertheless, she ruled out the existence of any formal letters regarding these talks, as has been claimed by Muallem.

"There does not exist as such any letter of intent or basket of solutions" to help resolve the problems of Lebanon," the spokeswoman remarked.

 

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