Lebanon-Syria security interlinked: Lebanese FM

TEHRAN, Feb.1 (MNA) -- Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said the security and stability of Lebanon and Syria are intertwined, the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper reported. “There is a difference in the ruling systems. But our common denominator is security and stability. Here lies our supreme interest regardless of those who do not want relations with Syria for personal reasons. “Whether we like it or not, we are affected by what is happening around us. If we close our border with Syria, who will lose? We will in the first place. 90 percent of our external trade to the (Persian) Gulf is exported by land via the Syrian gate,” Mansour told a delegation from the Journalists’ Union. He added that the unstable situation in Syria adversely affects Lebanon. “These are facts that cannot be ignored, no matter what the political opinions are,” he commented. Al-Khaleej al-Emarat also claimed in a report posted on its website that Mansour told the meeting that a plot is underway to break up Syrian to realize the Greater Middle East Initiative. “They want to break up Syria,” Mansour said without referring to the U.S, the Zionist regime and other Western countries. “They want to break up Syria in line with the Greater Middle East Initiative.” The foreign minister said the pressure on Syria is because of its support to the resistance movement in Lebanon and Palestine.