Lebanon hopes Geneva 2 conference initiate political solution on Syria

Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman expressed his hopes that the upcoming Geneva II conference will break the deadlock over the Syrian crisis and be a beginning for reaching a political solution, local media reported Saturday. Quoted by Annahar daily in a televised speech on Friday evening, Suleiman said that he expected Geneva II peace conference will " open a way toward the political solution to the Syrian crisis." He reiterated his country's objection to any kind of military intervention in Syria, saying "we refused the strike, and asked foreign parties to keep Lebanon neutral, and not use it as a passage way." The president also called all the Lebanese parties involved in the Syrian crisis to withdraw their forces from the neighboring country. He noted that Lebanon would not mind taking part in the Geneva II convention. The Lebanese leader's remarks came after the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution on Syria. On Friday, the Security Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 2118 aimed at ridding Syria of chemical weapons. The vote came after the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international chemical weapons watchdog, agreed on a plan to destroy Syria's stockpiles by mid-2014. "The Security Council decides that the Syrian Arab Republic shall not use, develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to other States or non-State actors," the resolution said.