DAMASCUS, Mar 16, 2009 (AFP) - Lebanon opened its first embassy in Syria on Monday, five months after the neighbours established diplomatic ties following decades of turbulent relations.
Lebanese charge d'affaires Rami Mortada raised the Lebanese flag over the building located in the Damascus residential neighbourhood of Abu Remmaneh, which is also home to the US embassy.
Lebanon and Syria reached agreement in October on establishing diplomatic ties, for the first time since gaining independence from France more than 60 years ago.
Lebanon has named career diplomat Michel el-Khoury as its first ambassador. Khoury is Beirut's current envoy to Cyprus.
Syria has yet to name an envoy to Lebanon, where it opened an embassy in December that is not yet fully operational although it has been staffed with three diplomats.
The thaw between the two neighbours came following a joint pledge by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese opposite number Michel Sleiman in Paris.
It marked a turning point in relations between Lebanon and Syria, which dominated its smaller neighbour for nearly three decades before pulling out its troops in April 2005.
The withdrawal came two months after the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri in a Beirut bombing widely blamed on Damascus. Syria has always denied any involvement.
The embassy opening comes as Sleiman is due to start Monday a three-day state visit to France, which sees the thaw in ties between Beirut and Damascus as a step towards the stabilisation of the region.
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Copyright AFP 2009.
