Lebanese PM Hariri visits Damascus

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in Damascus Saturday in a landmark move experts say could heal political and personal rifts.

Observers said Syrian President Bashar Assad greeted Hariri at the presidential palace, kicking off what was expected to be a two-day visit that was to include a state dinner Saturday night, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Hariri's father, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, was killed in a 2005 attack widely blamed on Syria, but which Damascus has always denied.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said in a statement that Hariri was visiting Damascus "to offer Syrian President Bashar Assad condolences for the death of his youngest brother," the Journal reported.

"During the visit, Mr. Hariri will discuss with the Syrian president how to improve relations between both countries," the statement reportedly read.

Nawaf Kabbara, a political science professor at Balamand University in Beirut, told the Journal Hariri's visit to Damascus comes after Assad moved to relax tensions with the United States and Saudi Arabia by encouraging his allies -- the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah -- to reach a political compromise with Hariri last month and join a new government.