War (of Words) with Syria
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Thursday, May 01, 2003
France urges Syria to pull troops out of Lebanon
Reuters -- April 30
By Tom Heneghan
PARIS, April 30 - France urged Syria on Wednesday to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon, support the "road map" for Middle East peace and pressure radical Arab groups to end their campaigns of violence.
"We must seize this unique chance," he said in what appeared to be the clearest French statement to date of the need to end Syria's troop presence in Lebanon, a country Paris administered under a League of Nations mandate between the two world wars.
"Lebanon needs to return quickly...to full independence and sovereignty. The condition for this is the withdrawal of all foreign troops and the deployment of Lebanese forces on the border with Israel," Villepin said.
"Syria can make a gesture and continue the withdrawal already undertaken," he said, referring to the pullout in February of about 4,000 troops from northern Lebanon, the latest in a series of redeployments and withdrawals that reduced the number of Syrian troops in Lebanon to 16,000-17,000.
Syria poured thousands of troops into neighbouring Lebanon early in the 1975-1990 civil war to save Christian militias from defeat by Muslim, leftist and Palestinian forces. Damascus later turned on them when they sided with arch-foe Israel.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid said the Syrian presence, part of the 1989 Taif accords that helped end the country's civil war, was still needed.
"Lebanon considers this presence necessary, legal and temporary, and will work on this matter on that basis and in that spirit," he said in a statement.
[Sell out Hizbullah, get back the Golan?]
Powell Hopes Syria Will Rethink Its Policies
Reuters -- April 30
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell hopes to dissuade Syria from pursuing of weapons of mass destruction and supporting Hizbollah in south Lebanon in talks with President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday.
Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, Powell said he would make the case that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has dramatically changed circumstances in the Middle East and that Damascus should, as a result, rethink a range of policies.
He is expected to make a second trip to the region next week to meet Israelis and Palestinians to push the "road map" Middle East peace plan drafted by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
"If Syria wants to be part of that comprehensive solution, then it has to review the policies it's been following with respect to the support of terrorist activities and the control they have over forces in Lebanon that present a threat to northern Israel," Powell said.
Kawaguchi asks Syria to improve relations with U.S.
Japan Today -- May 1
DAMASCUS — Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi met with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday and said Japan would welcome efforts by Syria to improve its relation with the United States, Japanese officials said.
Kawaguchi, who is in the Middle East on an eight-day trip, met Assad at his palace in Damascus. She expressed hope that Syria will improve its relationship with the U.S. when Secretary of State Colin Powell visits Syria in early May. (Kyodo News)
U.S. Says Libya, Syria Reduce Support for Terrorism
Reuters -- April 30
By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON - The United States said on Wednesday Syria and Libya reduced their support for "terrorism" they remained on a U.S. list of seven "state sponsors of terrorism" along with Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan.
'Shaming effect' on Arab world
The Washington Times -- April 29
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a key architect of President Bush's Iraq policy, said yesterday that the ouster of Saddam Hussein has had a "shaming effect" on the Arab and Muslim world where other tyrannical rulers exist.
"In terms of the larger picture, I think they're like several other countries on a sort of dead-end course," he said. "They're less immediately threatening to us than some of those countries, but I think they're going to have to face that opportunity."
Mr. Wolfowitz said he believes Damascus facilitated the flow of hundreds of foreign guerrillas into Iraq before and during the war.
"There's no question that paramilitaries crossed the border, and it's a pretty tightly controlled border, so I have to assume they had some degree of official sanction," he said. "That's why we expressed very strong concern about what was going on."
But since the fall of Baghdad, the Syrians appear to have stopped more paramilitary fighters from getting into Iraq. "There does seem to be a change in that respect," he said.
But the fact that Syria "should have had an indulgence in sending killers into Iraq to threaten our people, that was simply unacceptable," Mr. Wolfowitz said.
Asked whether Syria is showing signs of political reform, like Iran, Mr. Wolfowitz said Iran tolerates more diversity of opinion.
"Oddly, in a certain way Iran is a more dangerous country in some of its policies," Mr. Wolfowitz said. "But it's a more open country in terms of the degree of diversion of opinion that's possible inside Iran."
"Syria's a pretty tightly regimented place and less obviously open to political change," he said.
"But that doesn't mean it can't change. In this modern world no country is immune, except maybe North Korea, to information from the outside. And when I spoke earlier for the need for Syria to confront the dead-end that it's on, there probably are people within that regime who can understand that they're on a dead-end course. Whether they can persuade President [Bashar] Assad to change it is a different matter."
[More detail on the Lantos-Assad meeting.]
Syria Calls for Peace Talks, but Israel Voices Skepticism
New York Times -- April 29
By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM - Responding to a Syrian call to revive peace talks, Israel said today that it was skeptical of the offer but would be willing to meet as long as Israel was not required to make concessions in advance.
The proposal by the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, was relayed to Israel by Representative Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California. He met the Syrian leader in Damascus on Saturday and saw Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel in Jerusalem on Monday.
Mr. Assad ``asked me to convey to the Israeli prime minister his desire to talk to Israel about various outstanding issues,'' Mr. Lantos told Israeli television on Monday night.
Syria Says Lebanese Hezbollah For 'Liberation'
IslamOnline -- April 26
DAMASCUS - As The United States renewed bellicose rhetoric against Syria Saturday, April 26, calling on the Arab country to cut support to Hezbollah, Damascus said the sole objective of the Lebanese Shiite group is to liberate the Israeli-occupied land.
U.S. Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, said using the "historic opportunity" to improve Syrian-U.S. ties after the downfall of Saddam Hussein is conditioned on Damascus ending support for "terrorism."
"I hope it (Syria) will not flounder on continued misguided policies like military support for Hezbollah or the maintenance of terrorist headquarters in Damascus," Lantos told reporters after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"Hezbollah is a political party whose sole objective is to liberate its territory from the Israeli occupation," Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bussaina Shaaban told a Washington forum.
The Syrian diplomat noted that Syria and other Middle East nations have been made nervous by the outcome of the war in Iraq and are troubled by murky U.S. motives for undertaking the invasion.
"Where are the (weapons of mass destruction) that were such a big reason for launching this war?" she asked, raising questions about long-term U.S. intentions in the Middle East.
"In many Arab countries," Shaaban added, the U.S. occupation "means the undermining of our indigenous civilization, and the bringing in (of) another, Western civilization that is not ours."
U.S. Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat from Florida, told the same forum at which Shaaban spoke that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fails to rein in the group, Washington should take action in concert "with our allies in the global coalition on terrorism,"
Beirut favours dialogue with US on Hezbollah
Lebanese FM says his country favours three-way dialogue with Syria, US about Shiite Muslim movement.
Middle East Online -- April 29
BEIRUT - Lebanon is in favor of three-way talks with Damascus and Washington about the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement, Foreign Minister Jean Obeid said here Monday after talks with the US ambassador.
Ambassador Vincent Battle called for dialogue and "no doubt he will find the door open here and with our Syrian brothers, because it is important for us to make known our views," Obeid told reporters.
Hizbollah fires at Israeli jets over south Lebanon
Reuters -- April 29
BEIRUT - Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla group said it unleashed a barrage of anti-aircraft fire on Tuesday at Israeli warplanes that swooped over southern Lebanon.
"The air defence unit of the Islamic Resistance... confronted Israeli enemy warplanes that violated Lebanese sovereignty over the eastern sector of south Lebanon," a statement from the Syrian and Iranian-backed group said.
FM: Syria won't interfere in Iraq
UPI -- April 29
By Thanaa Imam
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa said Tuesday his country will not interfere in Iraq's internal affairs and noted that forming a temporary administration in Baghdad was normal, but difficult.
"We don't wish to interfere in the Iraqi affairs," Sharaa said during a joint news conference with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Damascus.
He, however, said Syria and Iraq had "historical ties deriving from centuries of joint interests that no regime can cancel."