Bilal to Al-Manar: Aoun΄s Visit to Syria Opens New Era

 
Source: Al-Manar TV, 03-12-2008
Preparations for the "historic" and "unprecedented" visit of the head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun to Syria were ongoing on Tuesday, amid expectations that the visit would begin on Wednesday and last until Sunday.
The visit, the first of its kind for Syria's "honest rival," is intended to open a new page, turn over a painful one in Lebanese history and look to the future. It would be divided into two parts - talks with top officials including President Bashar Assad, and tours to shrines, meetings with people of areas he will visit and seminars.
Meanwhile, the Syrian capital also prepares itself to welcome Aoun who's scheduled to hold meeting with Syrian leaders and visit many cities and Christian religious sites.
In this context, Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal hailed the visit, saying that Damascus welcomes Aoun as a respectful person, a national Lebanese leader. "We welcome, with open hearts, Aoun in Damascus as a prominent figure that deserves the respect of people not only in the Christian community but within the whole Lebanon," he said, adding that Aoun was invited to visit Syria as a national personality with nationalist and Arab dimensions.
Speaking to Al-Manar, Bilal praised Aoun for standing at the side of the Resistance and adherence to the Resistance choice in order to defeat the enemy and liberate the land. He also lauded Aoun's courageous stance against the movements which went too far beyond the national cause.
Meanwhile, the Syrian minister expected the visit would yield to a new era between Lebanon and Syria. "The visit would, no doubt, create comfortable atmosphere between the two brotherly states, it would also make room for normalization of relations and returning everything to normal," Bilal told Al-Manar. He explained that it was very natural that "Lebanon returns to Syria and Syria returns to Lebanon so that the Lebanese-Syrian link returns again."