Lebanon hopes Geneva II conference to initiate political solution on Syria

Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman expressed the hope that the upcoming Geneva II conference would break the deadlock over the Syrian crisis and be a beginning for reaching a political solution, local media reported Saturday. Quoted by Annahar Daily in a televised speech on Friday evening, Suleiman said that he expected Geneva II peace conference will "open a way toward the political solution to the Syrian crisis". He reiterated his country's objection to any kind of military intervention in Syria, saying "we refused the strike, and asked foreign parties to keep Lebanon neutral, and not use it as a passage way", Xinhua reported. The Lebanese leader's remarks came after the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution on Syria. On Friday, the Security Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 2118 on Syria chemical weapons. The vote came after the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international chemical weapons watchdog, agreed on a plan to destroy Syria's stockpiles by mid-2014. "The Security Council decides that Syrian shall not use, develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to other States or non-State actors," the resolution said.