March 14 "Uncomfortable" with Baroud΄s Damascus Visit!

Source: Al-Manar TV, 11-11-2008
Lebanon's Interior Minister Ziad Baroud was still on his way back to Beirut following a quick visit to Syria that resulted in the establishment of a joint security committee between the two neighbour countries when the so-called March 14 bloc started criticizing the visit, rejecting the agreement, and even any form of coordination between Beirut and Damascus.
The head of the Democratic Gathering MP Walid Jumblatt was the first to raise the issue. In his weekly column for the PSP run newsletter Al-Anbaa, Jumblatt warned "ministers visiting Damascus" of the importance of keeping away from the establishment of joint security committees, which he claimed may later develop into a justification of Syrian interference in the Lebanese internal affairs.
For his part, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said that he would have hoped that the Lebanese government would postpone Baroud's visit until after a security delegation looks into the security files that the Syrians have on Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Future movement MP Atef Majdalani said he was "frustrated" and "disappointed" with the visit's results, expressing worries of returning to previous security committees "when the Syrian official used to order and the Lebanese one to execute" according to Majdalani. He also said that he was surprised by the absence of the missing persons from the talks' agenda, requesting Baroud to come with an explanation for that!
Moreover, Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported that the General Secretariat of the March 14 coalition will reportedly issue a statement on Tuesday in which it would clarify its position vis-à-vis the results of this visit.
But the young minister, surprised by the "storm" his first Damascus visit has generated, strived to explain that the established committee was in harmony with both countries' sovereignty, stressing that his visit was "the first stage in activating the relations between the two countries."
Speaking on Tuesday to the Voice of Lebanon radio station, Baroud noted that it was useless for any party to fell uncomfortable with the return of coordination between the Lebanese and Syrian Interior ministries.
"The issue of missing Lebanese was not excluded from discussions with the Syrians, but I did not want to exceed my authorities so we only discussed the role of the Interior Minister in this matter," Baroud stressed, recalling that the dossier of missing Lebanese suspected to be in Syrian prisons would be placed in the hands of the new Syrian-Lebanese committee dedicated to the matter.