Lebanese FM: Lebanon-Syria security contact daily

The Lebanese letter sent to the Syrian embassy last Monday is part of the daily exchange of security letters and other contact between the two countries, Foreign Minister of the Lebanese caretaker government Adnan Mansour said on Thursday. Al Joumhouria Lebanese daily quoted Mansour, Thursday issue, as saying that "The exchange of security letters is a daily process" between Lebanon and Syria, pointing out that a joint military committee and communications committees are handling this since 1992. This is in addition to the regular communication specifically between the embassies of the two countries. Mansour refused to reveal the content of the letter sent form the Lebanese side to Syria last Monday, saying it is subject to the confidentiality observed in the exchange of diplomatic communications between nations, and not only between Syria and Lebanon. There is an exchange of a number of political, economic, and security related letters on a daily basis between the two countries, and the issue is not worth the fuss made about it recently, he said. Mansour sent a memo to the Syrian embassy in Lebanon recently, following the directive of President Michel Suleiman to the Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces General Jean Kahwaji last week to file the reports on the Syrian airstrikes on the Lebanese borders with the Foreign Ministry. Suleiman had ordered Mansour to send a letter of censure to the Syrian side, with a demand to halt continuous air attacks and breaches of Lebanese borders and sovereign territory. Since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis, March 2011, northern border Lebanese towns and those in the Biqa' valley region have suffered attacks by missiles, mortar shells, and land-force fire. The latest incident was the firing of five missiles by a Syrian fighter aircraft onto the Ersal Lebanese border town in Biqa'.