War (of Words) with Syria
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Thursday, May 01, 2003
[Pay site, just the abstract is free.]
Druse village shocked by terror allegations against four residents
Jerusalem Post April 30
DAVID RUDGE
Jerusalem -- The arrest of four Golan Heights [Druse] men on suspicion of coordinating with Hamas officials in Gaza to kidnap an IDF soldier and hand him over to Hizbullah came as a surprise to many, especially residents of their village.
"I know the feelings of the residents of Bukata and of all the Druse villages on the Golan Heights, the religious leaders and ...
[Powell's comments in Spain on Israel/Palestine and Syria.]
Powell: Don't Derail Mideast Peace Plans
The Associated Press via New York Times -- May 1
MADRID -- Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Israel and the Palestinian Authority on Thursday against letting violence ``immediately contaminate the road map'' toward peace that President Bush has offered.
Powell spoke after meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio in Madrid -- the place where the ``road map'' first began taking shape a year ago between the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
Later Thursday, Powell was to have dinner with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. He then heads to Albania on Friday and then to Syria, where he will meet with the foreign minister and President Bashar Assad. Those talks are a prelude to another Mideast journey by Powell next week for talks with Abbas and Sharon. [What about Lebanon? Lebanese papers have expressed concern that the 3 hour stop-over in Beirut might be dropped from the itinerary.]
In Syria, Powell said he intends to take up U.S. allegations that Syria supports terrorism, the ``changed strategic situation'' in the Middle East now that Saddam Hussein is gone from power, and the movement of wanted Iraqi leaders across the border into Syria after war was under way in Iraq.
The fact that Syria now has a different Iraq as a neighbor, plus the road map and the new Palestinian leadership, ``is a new strategic dynamic that they should consider,'' Powell said. He said he expects his sessions in Syria to be ``rather full and candid,'' but he is not seeking any specific outcome.
``It's an opportunity to review where we are,'' Powell said.
[Signs of conciliation from Syria. Analysis of issues expected to be covered in Powell's meeting.]
U.S. - Syrian Ties Face Critical Moment
The Associated Press via The New York Times -- May 1
DAMASCUS, Syria -- In the days before Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Damascus, Syria has given indications it wants to avoid a collision course with Washington.
It has sealed its border with Iraq. It has expelled more than 30 Iraqis, many from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. It coordinated with the Americans the departure from Syria of one-time Iraqi intelligence official Farouk Hijazi, who is now in U.S. custody.
And its state-run newspapers are putting a positive spin on Powell's trip, scheduled to begin Friday.
``We hope that Powell's visit would achieve the hoped-for positive results and would be a real start for U.S.-Syrian relations,'' the daily Al-Thawra said Wednesday.
Syria: Powell to be welcomed for dialogue
UPI -- May 1
By Dalal Saoud
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa said Thursday U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was being welcomed in Damascus to hold a dialogue to repair damaged ties.
He told reporters in Beirut: "We welcome Mr. Powell in Damascus and he will naturally receive the adequate hospitality. All what we wish to hear from him, he can relay to us in a form of dialogue and explain what is going on in the region on the bases of the declared positions from the United States and Syria."
On Thursday, Sharaa said Syria will be ready to answer U.S. questions "in a spirit that does not derive from a state of enmity or fulfillment of others' demands."
Asked about U.S. demands to disarm Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, which Syria backs, and cease support for Damascus-based Palestinian militant groups, Sharaa said: "I won't answer any question related to demands because we did not hear these demands and no one asked us these matters."
He said part of the "intimidation campaign" against Syria was being led by media networks that he didn't identify, and Sharaa warned that "we should not bow to that degree about repeated demands being presented by Israel to Washington and then Washington reflecting them in some media."
He said Hezbollah was a Lebanese political party and Lebanese officials were better placed to answer any U.S. queries about it.
But he said: "Attention should be directed to the Israeli occupation in the first degree before it is being directed to those who resist occupation."
Syria-Based Palestinian Group Slams 'Road Map'
Reuters -- May 1
DAMASCUS - A radical Palestinian group based in Syria on Thursday criticized the "road map," the new Middle East peace plan, as being "unbalanced" and said it gave Israel the upper hand.
"The implementation of the plan is based on successive rather than parallel steps by both sides, thus leaving control in the hands of the government of (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon..." the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said in a statement.
The DFLP, one of several Palestinian factions that support the 31-month-old uprising for independence as a legitimate form of struggle for freedom, said the terms of the plan would "leave Palestinians under the force of the occupation tanks, arrests and assassinations."
Lebanon rejects French call
IRIB (Iran) -- May 1
Beirut - Lebanon rejected French calls on Wednesday for a complete withdrawal of Syrian forces from its territory, with Foreign Minister Jean Obeid saying it was a matter solely between the two countries.
French Foriegn Minister Dominique De Villepin had called in a phone call to Damascus for Syria to leave Lebanon.
But Obeid told reporters tersely: "Syria's military presence in Lebanon, which France links to an overall solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, only concerns Beirut and Damascus and their mutual interests.
"Their presence is set out in the inter-Lebanese peace agreement of Taif, supported by the United Nations and the Arab League.
It is also a feature of the treaty of fraternity, cooperation and coordination signed between Lebanon and Syria."
[Do the Israelis have to make their demands on the US so obvious? The word for today is "subtlety". Look it up, Ayalon.]
Israeli envoy urges regime change in Syria and Iran
The Guardian -- April 29
Oliver Burkeman in Washington
Israel's ambassador to the US called for "regime change" in Iran and Syria yesterday as players in the Middle East staked out their positions before a crucial Palestinian vote that is expected to trigger publication of the American-backed "road map" to peace.
Removing Saddam Hussein was "not enough", said Daniel Ayalon. But war against Syria and Iran was not the answer, he added, advocating isolating them diplomatically, imposing economic sanctions and using "psychological pressure".
The war in Iraq "has to follow through", he told a conference in Washington of the Anti-Defamation League, an organisation that campaigns against anti-semitism. "We still have great threats of that magnitude coming from Syria, coming from Iran."
[Graham on Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah.]
Senator criticizes tax and Iraq policies
The Miami Herald (via SJ Merc) -- April 28
BY TYLER BRIDGES
Sen. Bob Graham criticized President George W. Bush for his tax and Iraq policies Sunday, in his first appearance on national television as a presidential candidate.
Graham also criticized Bush saying the United States ought to confront the Syrian government over terrorist groups -- such as Hezbollah -- based in Syria and Syria-controlled northern Lebanon. Graham said those terrorist groups present the greatest threat to Americans.
The Bush administration has been reluctant to challenge Syria overtly, preferring to wage war on Iraq.
''We have virtually abandoned the war on terrorism,'' Graham said. ``We have withdrawn military and intelligence capabilities from Afghanistan, and because of that, al Qaeda has been able to regroup, that we have not taken on the A-team of Hezbollah and the others in Syria and Lebanon, that we have allowed our alliances, which are going to be absolutely critical to winning the war on terrorism, to disintegrate.''
[Anti-Hezbollah editorial.]
Ada'af al Imaan (Hezbollah's Arms)
Dar al hayat (Lebanon) -- April 30
Dawood Al Shirian
The Lebanese people yearn for Hezbollah's disarmament even more than the Americans do. The party's armament remains the main political problem in Lebanon, since the Taif Accords. But the occupation of the South prompted all parties and confessions in the country to overlook this problem. But this does not mean that the party's armament is an intentional Lebanese national policy. The issue is made to appear natural, namely that the resistance's units are not emergency military groups or that they are in barracks, but rather citizens living in their villages. But based on this logic, other confessions and groups would have to be armed, and to protect themselves and their villages, and this would take Lebanon straight back to the era of militias.
[Hezbollah stands its ground.]
Hezbollah: U.S. Demands To Disarm Us "Will Not Be Met With A Positive Response"
Dar al hayat (Lebanon) -- April 29
Walid Choucair
Hussein Al Khalil, Assistant Secretary General of Hezbollah, said that the request the United States made to Lebanon and Syria that the party be disarmed "will not meet a favorable response."
In an interview with Al Hayat, he said: "I will not speak on behalf of Syria and the Lebanese government. But according to our reading of the Lebanese situation, I believe that this demand will not meet a favorable response."
"With regard to Hezbollah," he added, "the U.S. and Israel carried out an aggression against Lebanon in July 1993 under that same pretext. But that aggression failed. And in April 1996, the enemy made another attempt at a larger scale, and mobilized all its supporters around the world, rallying them at the Sharm Al Sheikh summit. But in the end, Hezbollah and Lebanon came out stronger than before. Today, if the enemy repeats the same foolish action, then the party will adopt the same position, and God willing, we will have similar results."
Al Hayat asked Al Khalil about the American demand that Hezbollah withdraw from the frontiers with Israel and that the Lebanese army deploy in the area. Al Khalil answered: "there is nothing in our dictionary called the withdrawal of Hezbollah from the South. Our sons and those of the resistance are the sons of all villages located throughout the South. We are not a foreign military group in barracks. We cannot ask people to leave their villages."
About the deployment of the Lebanese army in the South, he said: "there are two theories in this respect; the first is the demand that the army should be in charge of security in the South, which is already the case since the army is present throughout the area. The second theory calls upon the army to defend Israel. We don't believe the army will defend the Israeli occupation."