Beirut - As premier-designate Saad Hariri on Thursday kicked off another round of parliamentary consultations to form Lebanon's long-awaited cabinet, cautious optimism seemed to be rising that the country's political crisis would soon be coming to an end. Sources say that Hariri's new consultations could now succeed after the surprise visit Wednesday by Syrian President Bashar al- Assad to Saudi Arabia, where he met Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Fouad Seniora.
The two met on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Jeddah.
Syria - a power broker in (and former occupier of) Lebanon -saw its relations with Lebanon and Saudi Arabia sour after the 2005 assassination of Lebanese-Saudi billionaire former premier Rafik Hariri.
Damascus has been widely blamed by Hariri's family and allies of being behind the killing, a charge Syria has so far denied. But the national and international outcry led to Syrian troops being forced out after nearly three decades on Lebanese soil.
In June of this year, Saad Hariri - Rafik's son - led a parliamentary bloc backed by the US and Saudi Arabia to election victory against an opposition backed by Iran and ... Syria.
A source with the Lebanese delegation to Jeddah told the German Press Agency
