WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States and France are discussing whether to seek a U.N. Security Council resolution insisting that Lebanon be allowed to decide its own future without Syrian interference, a State Department official said Monday. Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, has been seeking a constitutional amendment that would allow him to extend his term in office for another three years. With 20,000 troops in Lebanon, Syria has been the main power broker in the country for years.
In recent days the White House and the State Department have been expressing concern about what they contend is Syria's continuing effort to determine Lebanon's political future. | Syria has been "un-helpful" in this and other matters. |
The pro-Syrian Lebanese Parliament is expected to approve a presidential term extension. Lahoud's six-year term expires on Nov. 24.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, without mentioning Syria by name, said Monday it is the view of the United States and many in Lebanon that all foreign forces should be removed from Lebanon based on a 15-year old agreement. "We have heard a lot of voices in Lebanon standing up for the established constitution," Boucher said. "And we think the Lebanese people should be allowed to decide without influence from other parties."
| Boucher is the guy tasked with delivering bad news. |
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, who heads the State Department's Middle East Bureau, is weighing the possibility of traveling to Damascus next week to deliver the U.S. message to Syrian authorities directly, a State Department official said. | That should be interesting |
The United States has been coordinating its Lebanon policy with France and Germany. On Friday, the French Foreign Ministry urged Lebanon to show "strict respect" for its constitution and suggested that no outside country should interfere with Lebanon's electoral process. Also on Friday, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said during a visit to Beirut that it was "crucial that Lebanon be preserved as an independent and sovereign nation and state, and that all the decisions are based on the constitution and on the free will of your people."
| Found a wedge issue that everyone can agree on. |
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