(RTTNews) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Syria on Wednesday to work for peace and security in neighboring Lebanon and Iraq during a visit that ended a two-year diplomatic boycott of Damascus. The visit comes after France dropped its objections to EU contacts with Damascus over a UN inquiry which implicated Syria in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri.
"I told the president Bashir Assad... that we would like to see Syria making a maximum effort to help implement Security Council Resolution 1701 as that is fundamental to reach peace, stability and independence in Lebanon," AFP quoted Solana as saying.
Prior to a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Solana called on senior Syrian officials to clamp down on alleged arms smuggling across the border into Lebanon and contribute to stabilizing Iraq, EU diplomats said.
Solana, who arrived in Damascus after visits to Beirut and Riyadh, held separate talks with Vice President Faruq al-Shara and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem before meeting Assad.
At a news conference with Muallem, Solana said the European Union was working towards Syria recovering the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel and annexed by the Jewish state in 1981.
Solana's visit follows a trip by Ellen Sauerbrey, the US assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, the highest-level visit from Washington to Damascus in two years, which involved talks limited to the Iraqi refugee crisis.