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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| xinhua: Syria plans to withdraw from Lebanon: Moussa |
| 2005-02-21 |
| DAMASCUS, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Syria is willing to withdraw from neighboring Lebanon, Arab League chief Amr Moussa said here on Monday. "President Bashar al-Assad stressed more than once in (our)talks Moussa said Assad underlined the importance to continue the "active and special relations" between Syria and Lebanon. The Taif agreement, inked in 1989, ended Lebanon's 1975-1990civil war and asked Syria to shift its troops in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley. As a main power-broker in Lebanon, Syria maintains about 14,000 troops there. Moussa said Assad also welcomed a UN role in the investigation of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Guess he must not want the assassin found. Wonder why.. "It is in the interests of all that this investigation be carried out in the fastest and most active way," Moussa quoted Assad as saying. The investigation would help "end hearsay and assure the Lebanese people and all of us about the legal process and that matters are proceeding on the right track," Assad was quoted assaying. Hariri, an opponent to Syria's influence in Lebanon, was killed in an explosion in central Beirut last week. He resigned as prime minister last October over disputes with incumbent Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a Damascus favorite. Hariri's assassination came amid high political tension in Lebanon and international pressure over Syria's dominance in its political affairs, just a few months before legislative elections are due to be held. Lebanese oppositions blamed Syrian and Lebanese authorities for the death of Hariri and called on Syrian forces to pull out before elections in May. The United States also called for Syria to end its occupation of Lebanon. |
| Posted by:Mrs. Davis |
| #4 Sounds like an invitation for the French to repeat their success in the Ivory Coast, perhaps with American support, this time. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-02-21 3:06:49 PM |
| #3 moose - letting the steam out of the kettle without but still keeping it at a boil...so to speak. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-02-21 12:18:27 PM |
| #2 Actually, the Syrians are in a bad way. 13,000 troops can't do much in Lebanon. They can't be reinforced from Syria, because the US could then conquer Damascus with two privates and a butter knife. So what the Syrians are probably planning to do is withdraw, while heavily arming the pro-government forces, and the Hizbullah, and their own 1.4 million citizens, with instructions to return Lebanon to civil war chaos. This would accomplish the following, they hope: Chaotic Lebanon would still be a conduit for trouble to Israel from Syria and Iran; the Hizbullah could continue to operate in the chaos; Lebanon would remain a failed state that would be no threat to Syria, and no foreign power would station in Lebanon; the unpopular de jure government would still have more "legitimacy" than the opposition, internationally; there would be no real democracy as a "bad" influence to them and the Palestinians; and there wouldn't be any pressure by the Lebanese for the Palestinians living in Lebanon to go home to the Gaza Strip or West Bank. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-02-21 11:55:25 AM |
| #1 Yes, and our cat Padishah plans to become vegetarian. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-02-21 11:41:26 AM |