The media advisor to the Syrian presidency denies to Al Arabiya the existence of contacts with Hezbollah

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In an interview with Al Arabiya/Al Hadath on Friday, the Syrian presidential media advisor, Ahmed Muwafaq Zaidan, denied reports of contacts with Hezbollah, stressing that they were baseless.

Zidane said: “We previously paid the price for rapprochement with militias outside the Lebanese state.”

The Syrian presidential advisor confirmed that parties with an interest are publishing false reports about communication with Hezbollah.

Media Advisor to the Syrian Presidency, Ahmed Muwafaq Zaidan, to Al Arabiya: The reports circulating about the existence of contacts with Hezbollah are completely false and have been denied by Damascus and Ankara.. The Syrian government supports the sovereignty of the Lebanese state in controlling and monitoring the common borders and confining political and military decisions to its official institutions..… pic.twitter.com/RzeewwWJFM

Zidane explained that his country deals with the state, saying: “Our approach in Lebanon is to support the state only.”

Zidane stressed that "the era of militias is over and there is no place for them."

He said that negotiations with Lebanon "should be with the state, not a militia."

Reports on Thursday claimed that representatives of the Syrian government and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held direct talks in Turkey in an attempt to calm tensions between the two sides, the first known meeting of its kind between the two long-time adversaries.

Syrian Foreign Ministry: There is no truth to reports of contacts with Hezbollah pic.twitter.com/NPH7tBiZr5

After the news was published, the official English-language account of the Syrian government on the

On Wednesday, the Hezbollah group denied its involvement in the matter, and said that it has no presence at all on Syrian territory nor any involvement in any security or military activity there.