US Secretary of State Colin Powellâs intention not to include Lebanon in his current tour of the Middle East is âastonishing,â a ministerial source said Tuesday. Powellâs tour, which began in Morocco, is expected to include Israel, Egypt, Jordan and potentially Ramallah, where Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is under virtual house arrest. âThis is not the first time Powell has omitted Lebanon from his Middle East tour,â the source stated, referring to Powellâs previous trip in February 2001. At the time, Powell was asked about the absence of Lebanon from his itinerary, to which he replied that he would pay a visit the next time he was in the region. For his part, Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli said Wednesday that Powellâs failure to visit Lebanon meant that a âsettlementâ of the Palestinian issue was going to be engineered at the expense of Lebanon and Syria.
They're under the mistaken impression they have some regional importance. No telling why they think that.Because they've got thousands of Syrian troops in the country and a fair few Hizbollah fighters hanging around. Hizbollah have a far better record against Israel than most Arab forces.
Remember Israel thought that Lebanon was of enough regional importance to invade, and that was before the Hizzies turned up. Until not so long ago they thought that the southern edge was important enough to occupy.
The other reason is that it is possible to "visit" Syria without visiting Syria, because Lebanon is so dominated by its neighbour.
The dual aim of American policy in the Middle East is to keep Israel alive and to keep the oil flowing. Granted Lebanon doesn't mean much for the second objective, but it does matter with the first one - a tad more than Morocco.
Why did he visit Morocco?
Posted by Emmanuel Goldstein [www.airstripone.blogspot.com] 4/10/2002 1:46:55 PM Two Morroccan possibilities:
a. to meet with Saudi Prince Abdullah at a 'neutral' location.
b. to arrange for a new home for Arafat if Israel actually exiles him. I'm not sure Tunisa wants him back.
Posted by Tom Roberts 4/10/2002 5:41:00 PM Lebanon's all but a wholy-owned subsidiary of Syria, so if Powell wanted to get something done, he'd be in Damascus taking to Assad Jr. rather than in Beirut.
Posted by Mark Byron [markbyron.blogspot.com] 4/11/2002 12:14:44 AM Bingo! You've got it, Mark! Why bother visiting somebody's colony?
Posted by Fred 4/11/2002 12:28:33 AM |