U.S. call for Syrian pullout draws mixed reaction

Issue sharply divides politicians

Monday, September 13, 2004

BEIRUT: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East William Burns' call for Syrian forces to withdraw from Lebanon received mixed reactions from Lebanese politicians over the weekend, with some supporting and reaffirming Burn's message, while others urged the Lebanese people to resist U.S. designs on the region.

Metn MP Pierre Gemayel, in a statement to the Akhbar Al-Yawm news agency, urged the "speedy withdrawal of Syrian forces from this country."

Alluding to some reports about an impending partial Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, Gemayel warned that Resolution 1559, calling for a complete Syrian withdrawal, was "serious and decisive."

He added that any Syrian redeployment would be useless "if it follows previous patterns (of Syrian withdrawal)."

Gemayel called for the "implementing speedy measures, including redeployment of Syrian troops, as a prelude to their final withdrawal in compliance with the Taif Accord."

President of the National Liberal Party, Dory Chamoun, added his voice to a chorus of politicians demanding Syrian compliance with 1559.

In an interview with Akhbar al-Yawm, he said that Syria initially "ignored 1559. But now it (Syria) realizes that the resolution is making its way towards implementation."

He said a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon "would not take more than a few months."

Meanwhile, Baalbek MP Marwan Fares insisted that the issue of the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon "has absolutely nothing to do with 1559."

He said, also in an interview with Akhbar al-Yawm, that the withdrawal was a "military one to be discussed only between the Lebanese and Syrian armies."

Fares added that "Syria has no desire to lay its hands on Lebanon" and that "any withdrawal should be programmed in advance."

In another reaction to Burn's statement, Hizbullah's southern commander Sheikh Nabil Qaouk rejected the U.S. request and expressed the party's readiness to "stand up to any challenge."

"U.S. pressure on Lebanon and Syria will only make us cling more strongly to our principles and rally even more to Syria," he said in a weekend ceremony in Bint Jbeil honoring several of the town's students for their success in the High School Certificate.

He accused Israel of "trying to take advantage of the current (anti-Arab) international political mood and Resolution 1559 to force Lebanon to make a separate regional peace with the Jewish state."

In a parallel development, Public Works and Transport Minister Najib Mikati stressed that the pressure Resolution 1559 puts on the Syrian-Lebanese relationship should not be underestimated.

Speaking during a tour of inspection of several public works projects in Tripoli, the minister said that the resolution "should be taken seriously."

"I am one of those who never underestimates things," the minister said.

He called for national unity and solidarity as "best weapons to counter the pressures exerted on both Syria and Lebanon."

Mikati told reporters, in answer to a question on the make-up of the upcoming government, that "as Prime Minister Rafik Hariri recently put it, it is too early to talk about that issue."

He added that Lebanon's relations with Syria were "not new, but long-standing."

Tyre MP Mohammed Abdel-Hamid Beydoun rejected 1559, arguing that it was trying to impose a "new vision to the Lebanese-Syrian bilateral relations."

The MP said that 1559 was just another form of the U.S. Congress' Syria Accountability Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress last year and signed by U.S. President George W. Bush earlier this year.

Beydoun said that the aim of Resolution 1559 was to "increase pressure on Syria."

Referring to the upcoming UN debate on the resolution, Tyre MP Ali Khalil called for keeping the current government in office at least until after Oct. 2 to strengthen the Lebanese negotiating position.

"This way, deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares, who is to represent Lebanon at the UN General Assembly later this month, would not do so with the government dismissed. This would weaken the strength of the Lebanese official address at the UN," Khalil said.

He condemned the international community for trying to accelerate the implementation of Resolution 1559 while other resolutions calling for an Israeli withdrawal from Arab land had not been implemented for decades.

Ahmad Asaad, son of former Speaker Kamel Asaad, called for political self determination for the Lebanese people.

By Elie Hourani and Samer Wehbe Daily Star staff