Region | Lebanon
Rival Lebanese leaders hold talks in Tripoli
Lebanese leaders held talks in Tripoli overnight, in a bid to end sectarian violence that has plagued the city for months, politicians said on Sunday.
- Agencies
- Published: 13:36 September 7, 2008
Tripoli: Lebanese leaders held talks in Tripoli overnight, in a bid to end sectarian violence that has plagued the city for months, politicians said on Sunday.
Sunni Muslim leader Sa'ad Al Hariri held talks with an Alawite community leader, pro-Syrian Ali Eid at the house of north Lebanon Mufti Shaikh Malik Sha'ar to lay the groundwork for a reconciliation meeting between Tripoli's various leaders.
Fierce clashes in Tripoli have left at least 22 people dead since June, while a bomb attack in August killed 15 others.
Mufti Sha'ar told reporters that Hariri and Eid agreed to end all visible armed presence in Tripoli and to hand its security to the Lebanese army.
"The meeting removed all the illusions and there was total agreement," Sha'ar said, adding he hoped that a wider reconciliation meeting would be held in the city before the end of Ramadan.
Hariri, who has been in Tripoli since Friday, said: "I'm ready to throw all my political weight behind any reconciliation effort and (to give) my financial, moral or political support to... consolidating civil peace in this country."
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