Qatar and Turkey end Lebanon talks

Foreign ministers from Turkey and Qatar have suspended efforts to mediate Lebanon's political crisis after two days of intensive talks with rival parties that failed to clinch a breakthrough. Their departure from Lebanon on Thursday comes one day after Saudi Arabia also decided to pull out as a mediator from the talks. Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jaber al-Thani, said in a statement released overnight that they were leaving Lebanon after a working draft to break the impasse between Saad Hariri, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, and Hezbollah was met with "reservations". Our "efforts resulted in a working draft that takes into account political and legal demands to resolve the current crisis in Lebanon based on the Syrian-Saudi initiative," the statement said. "But given certain reservations, [we] decided to suspend efforts in Lebanon for the time being and to leave Beirut in order to consult with [our] leadership." The Syrian-Saudi initiative reportedly calls for Lebanon to disavow a UN tribunal probing the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister, against guarantees from Hezbollah concerning its weapons arsenal. The initiative also calls for guarantees concerning the functioning of state institutions.