Syria and Lebanon have signed 17 cooperation agreements covering security and economic issues during a visit by the Lebanese premier to Damascus heading a large delegation. It is the third visit to Damascus by Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri since relations with Damascus witnessed a remarkable thaw after nearly five-year rupture triggered off by the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Hariri met with Syria's President Bashar Assad during Sunday's visit. Agreements signed included a drugs control cooperation accord, an agreement for the transfer of sentenced persons and a consumer protection accord. Hariri called for closer ties with Syria Sunday, state media said, as he made his third visit since taking office to a country he once accused of being behind his father's assassination. Hariri and his counterpart Mohammad Naji Otri examined “fraternal relations and the common will of the two countries to develop them,” the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported. Hariri and Otri also affirmed their countries' “commitment to reinforce relations”, SANA said. During Hariri's visit last December, the first since his father's assassination, he had expressed his desire for “privileged, sincere and honest relations... in the interest of both countries and both peoples.”
