War (of Words) with Syria
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Wednesday, Apr 30, 2003
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."
[Depends on the definition of the word "threaten".]
Rumsfeld Says United States Not Threatening Syria
Rueters -- April 29
"We have no hidden agenda," Rumsfeld told a news conference after talks in Riyadh with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz.
"I think it's a mischaracterization that we threatened Syria. We are not in the business of threatening," Rumsfeld said. "It was a fact, not a threat and that's all I have to say."
Powell to Visit Syria and Lebanon, but Delays Israel Trip
New York Times, April 29
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WSHINGTON — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, preparing for an intensive new phase of American diplomacy in the Middle East, said today that he would travel to Syria and Lebanon this week. At the same time, administration officials said that a long-awaited plan intended to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would be published on Wednesday.
Mr. Powell will meet with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in Damascus on Saturday and pay a visit to Lebanon the same day, the Bush administration announced.
Mr. Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today that while in Syria he would press Mr. Assad further on American demands that Syria hand over any Iraqi leaders who had fled there during the war. The United States also wants Syria to end its support of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations that use Syrian territory or Syrian-held territory in Lebanon as a base for attacks on Israel.
[A story covered previously spoke of preparations to respond to Hezbollah.]
U.S. Fears Hizbullah Retaliation
Middle East News Online -- April 22
"It has a significant presence of its trained operatives inside the United States waiting for the call to action," Sen. Bob Graham, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. "In recent years they have been infiltrating into this core in the United States people who have gone through their training camps and have the skills of terrorist activity."
via What Really Happened
Dissonance
Compare the differences in wording from two different entries in the CIA World Factbook. Current rhetoric from the Bush administration has introduced the word "occupation" to the description of the Syrian deployment in Lebanon.
Syria
Since 1976, Syrian troops have been stationed in Lebanon, ostensibly in a peacekeeping capacity.
Lebanon
Syria maintains about 20,000 troops in Lebanon based mainly in Beirut, North Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley. Syria's troop deployment was legitimized by the Arab League during Lebanon's civil war and in the Ta'if Accord. Damascus justifies its continued military presence in Lebanon by citing Beirut's requests and the failure of the Lebanese Government to implement all of the constitutional reforms in the Ta'if Accord.
Hizbollah Urges Muslims to Defend Syria Against US
Reuters -- April 22
By Mariam Karouny
BEIRUT - Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah called on Arab and Muslim states on Tuesday to defend Syria if the United States launched any military action against Damascus.
[Discussion of cabinet shakeup and Syria's role in same. Report on Lahoud's speech about Lebanese security in light of regional situation.]
HARIRI’S FIFTH GOVERNMENT A CABINET OF SOLIDARITY WITH SYRIA
Monday Morning (Beirut) -- April 21
Lahoud condemned the recent US threats made against both Syria and Lebanon, “especially those focussing on Syria”, saying it was “unfair to punish the Lebanese and the Syrians for standing by Iraq and insisting on a peaceful solution”.
Speaking to a delegation of Army officers visiting Baabda Palace and led by the Army commander-in-chief, General Michel Sleiman, the president said that “Israel’s way of collecting the fruits of the US victory in Iraq depends largely on discrediting Lebanon and Syria and describing them as supporting the Iraqi regime instead of the Iraqi people”.
Lebanon’s support, the president explained, was aimed at alleviating the ill-effects of the invasion on the Iraqi people, adding that Israel’s game was already known since it was under pressure to implement the ‘road map’ peace plan that promises an independent Palestinian state by 2005. But to make up for that pressure, Tel Aviv wanted to strip Lebanon and Syria of any ability to resist or of any negotiating leverage.
[Gingrich expounds on diplomacy at the AEI.]
Gingrich blasts 'diplomatic failure' at State Department
White House defends Powell
CNN -- April 22
"The concept of the American secretary of state going to Damascus to meet with a terrorist-supporting, secret-police-wielding dictator is ludicrous," said Gingrich, who resigned the speakership under fire in 1999. He had represented Georgia as a Republican congressman. "The United States military has created an opportunity to apply genuine economic, diplomatic and political pressure on Syria."