Aoun receives Assad envoy

Lebanon’s newly elected President Michel Aoun today met with representatives of Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad in Beirut.

Aoun’s meeting came hours ahead of a visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Beirut.

The Lebanese presidency said in a statement that Aoun had received the Syrian Minister for Presidential Affairs, Mansour Azzam, and the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdul Karim Ali, at Beirut’s Baabda Palace.

The statement gave no other details about the meeting.

A Lebanese diplomatic source told the Anadolu Agency earlier that “the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif will arrive in Beirut in the coming few hours to convey a message of congratulations and support from the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to his Lebanese counterpart.”

Aoun was elected by parliament last Monday as the country’s 13th president.