Syria did not interfere in Lebanon's recent presidential elections and has no interest in controlling its smaller neighbor, Syria's foreign minister said Sunday. "We do not want to control Lebanon. We are afraid that others will control Lebanon and seek to control Syria through Lebanon. This is the real Syrian-Lebanese fear," Farouk al-Sharaa said in an interview from New York with the Lebanese satellite station Al Hayat-LBC.
Al-Sharaa, who was participating in the U.N. General Assembly, said a recent Security Council resolution that demanded Syrian troops leave Lebanon was a service to Israel. "None of the speakers at the U.N. General Assembly mentioned Resolution 1559 except for the Israeli foreign minister ... This proves that the resolution was a service to Israel, and definitely not a service to Lebanon. "Even those who adopted this resolution are reconsidering it now," he said, without specifying which countries he was referring to as having second thoughts. The United States and France drafted the resolution, which was co-sponsored by Britain and Germany. It called on Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, stop influencing politics in the country and allow Lebanon to hold presidential elections as scheduled. Lebanon defied the Sept. 2 resolution, and Parliament, apparently on Syria's nod, voted to amend the constitution to extend pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's soon-to-expire term by another three years. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due to report to the Security Council early next month on Lebanon. |