Lebanon and Syria agreed on Wednesday to establish full diplomatic relations for the first time since both countries became independent in the 1940’s. Earlier in the day a bomb blast in Lebanon’s northern port city of Tripoli killed at least 18 people, including nine soldiers.

The explosion came just hours before the start of a two-day visit by Michel Suleiman, Lebanon’s new president and a former army commander, to Damascus for talks with Bashar al-Assad, his Syrian counterpart.