BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea praised Thursday a pledge by the opposition Syrian National Council to open “a new page” of bilateral relations should it take power.

“The Syrian National Council wants to correct relations [with Lebanon]. What matters is implementation. But it is a very good beginning to correct relations with Lebanon,” Geagea told a news conference at his residence in Maarab.

“The issues of border demarcation, the abolition of the Higher [Lebanese-Syrian] Council, energizing diplomatic relations and forming a committee to follow up the case of [Lebanese] missing [in Syria] confirmed that the Syrian National Council has hit the nail on the head with regard to relations between Lebanon and Syria,” he said.

The SNC announced Thursday that, should it come to power in Syria, it will seek to re-evaluate agreements between Syria and Lebanon and clearly demarcate the border between the two countries as a first step toward achieving better bilateral relations.

“The Syrian National Council seeks a bright future with Lebanon ... We will review agreements signed between the two countries and reach new agreements based on the independent and common interests of both nations,” the council said in an open letter to the Lebanese posted on its official website.

The council also said that the relationship between the two nations should be governed by the framework of diplomatic representation via the two countries’ embassies.

The statement said the council would abolish the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council, demarcate the Syrian border, particularly in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, and adjust the common border between Syria and Lebanon.

The SNC also vowed to end Syria’s “security-intelligence role” in interfering in Lebanon’s affairs and proposed that a commission of inquiry be established to look into the cases of detained Lebanese and missing people in Syrian prisons.

Lebanese NGOs say they have the names of 545 people who went missing and are now believed to be in Syrian prisons, all of them victims of forced disappearance during the 1975-1990 Civil War.

The SNC’s letter was also welcomed by Western Bekaa MP Ziad Qaderi, a member of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement parliamentary bloc which staunchly supports Syrian protesters against the regime.

Qaderi praised the SNC’s pledge that “a free, independent and democratic Syria” would recognize Lebanon as a sovereign and independent country.

“Syria’s salvation from the tyranny of the Bashar Assad regime is a salvation for Lebanon and its democratic system,” Qaderi said in a statement.