Aoun Sees Geagea in Yarze Prison for 1 Hour

Gen. Aoun held an hour-long meeting with Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea at his prison in the defense ministry compound in Yarze Wednesday. There was no one else in Geagea's prison room when the meeting began at 8 a.m. and ended with Aoun's emergence at 9 a.m. to call on Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman at his Yarze command post. Aoun was driven from his Rabieh mansion to Yarze in a heavily escorted motorcade, arriving half an hour before the meeting with Geagea was to begin. "The hatchet of the past is buried once and for all," Aoun told a news conference in Rabieh shortly after the visit. "Keeping him in prison is an injustice... I declare my solidarity with him until he is released," Aoun said. Aoun said the meeting symbolized a new beginning. "The visit lays the foundations for a new relationship within the democratic process we are witnessing today, and within the framework of letting go of the past which is now part of history," he said. He described the meeting with Geagea as "cheerful" and positive, saying they talked more about "spiritual matters" than politics. Aoun said Geagea was in good health, and that he found him "psychologically very sound." He said they spoke freely in a meeting room, without supervision. Some unconfirmed reports said the two were separated by a glass pane.(Naharnet-AP)