Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's acting foreign minister, flew to Syria to meet Bashar al-Assad, the president. It was officially acknowledged that the two were discussing Lebanon as their protégé, the militant and political group Hizbollah, grows more confident that it will be able to name the next prime minister.
Hizbollah and its allies this month forced the collapse of the government led by Saad Hariri, the pro-Western Sunni prime minister, after their ministers resigned from the coalition cabinet. The group, which is classed as a terrorist organisation by the US, has been locked in a standoff with Mr Hariri over a UN-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of his father, the former premier Rafiq Hariri.
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