In bid Lebanon's unity, Davutoglu meets with Hezbollah leader

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday night met with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as part of joint efforts with Qatar to solve the crisis in Lebanon. The meeting – in a secret venue near Beirut, as Nasrallah's life is under threat by Israel, among others – followed nearly four hours of talks with caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri earlier on Tuesday. Davutoglu and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, arrived in Beirut on Tuesday afternoon a few hours after Hezbollah forces took to the streets briefly in protest of the indictment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which was established under UN Security Council auspices to investigate the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. During the meeting with Nasrallah, which lasted almost three hours, the Qatari and Turkish officials underlined that stability in Lebanon will have positive repercussions for peace in the region. "This is not an alternative or parallel initiative. We hope that if progress is made, Saudi Arabia will play the constructive role that it has always played," Davutoglu said, adding that Riyadh yesterday announced it had abandoned efforts to mediate in Lebanon's crisis. Davutoglu also said Turkey and Qatar have been "informing" Saudi Arabia of their efforts, in addition to "consulting."