Syria and Saudi say will work to stabilize Lebanon

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (L) welcomes King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, after reviewing the honor guards in Damascus July 29, 2010.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria and Saudi Arabia pledged on Thursday to work on stabilizing Lebanon and Syria advised the United States against interfering with Saudi King Abdullah's visit to Damascus.

Abdullah arrived for talks with President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian capital before they travel together to Beirut on Friday to try to calm tension over a tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri.

An official statement said the two rulers "affirmed that they care about backing concord in Lebanon and support all what contributes to its stability and unity."

The United States said it hoped Syria would play a constructive role in the region and would respond to what it describes as the Saudi monarch's concerns about Iranian threats to Middle East stability.

The Syrian government advised the United States on Thursday against interfering with Abdullah's visit and said the two countries "know better" how to stabilize the Middle East.

The official Syrian news agency said the Syrian president personally met the Saudi monarch at Damascus airport, reflecting the importance of the visit.

"King Abdullah has played a significant leadership role in the region. So his prospective travel to Syria and to Lebanon is consistent with his search for peace, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Wednesday.

IRAN ISSUE SENSITIVE

Relations between Damascus and Washington improved after President Barack Obama took power last year but major differences persist, including Syria's strong ties with Iran and the two countries' backing for the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

"The Syrian statement seems to express a preference in Damascus not to focus on the Iran issue again during King's Abdullah's visit," a Syrian source said.

Shi'ite Iran was a focus of talks by King Abdullah when he visited Damascus last year, diplomats in the Syrian capital said. The visit helped mend ties between Saudi Arabia, an Arab Sunni heavyweight, and Syria, which had deteriorated after the Hariri assassination.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly criticized the U.N.-backed tribunal that began work last year but has yet to issue indictments in the Hariri case.

He described the tribunal, which is based in The Hague, as an "Israeli project" after saying he had received word that it planned to indict members of his group over Hariri's killing.

Thabet Salem, a Syrian journalist and commentator, said any indictment of Hezbollah members could spark renewed violence between Lebanon's Shi'ites and Sunnis on a scale that could be bigger than a brief conflict two years ago.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to see (Lebanese Prime Minister Saad) Hariri toppled and Syria is demonstrating that it will not spare any effort to prevent instability in Lebanon, hence President Assad's possible trip with Abdullah to Beirut," Salem said.

Political commentator Ayman Abdelnour said Syria's interests with Hezbollah converge, but any indictment against Hezbollah could pose a challenge to their alliance.

"Syria looks at the Lebanese issue as part of Arab coordination it wants on other issues, including Palestine and a government it can work with in Iraq," Abdelnour said.

U.N. investigators initially implicated Syrian and Lebanese security agencies. Syria says it had no hand in the February 14, 2005 seafront bombing in Beirut that killed Rakik al-Hariri and 22 others.

The assassination provoked an international furor led by the United States, France and Saudi Arabia that prompted Syria to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April 2005 and led to the establishment of the special tribunal.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)