Posted on 08/31/2004 9:37:32 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States is calling for the immediate withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, according to a a draft resolution circulated in the U.N. Security Council late Tuesday.
The new measure also offers support for elections under the current Lebanese constitution, which would rule out a second term for pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.
The United States decided to press for a resolution - with the support of France, Lebanon's former colonial ruler - after what many saw as a Syrian-engineered move to change the constitution to extend Lahoud's term.
The resolution calls on the council "to consider additional measures," which are not specified, if the Syrians and Lebanese don't comply.
Lebanon accused the United States and France Tuesday of trying to "blackmail" it and Syria, and create trouble between Beirut and Damascus.
U.S. deputy ambassador Anne Patterson said the United States wants the Security Council to vote on the draft resolution "hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday." But the draft is almost certain to face opposition from Algeria, the only Arab nation on the council, and probably from Russia and China, which traditionally oppose council interference in a country's internal affairs.
In Washington, the Bush administration sharply criticized Syria for meddling in Lebanon's politics, and a senior U.S. diplomat was likely to go to Damascus for high-level talks.
But Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid said Lebanese-Syrian relations are a matter for both countries to decide. He said Lebanon "completely separates between dealing with our internal affairs and international attempts at blackmail with the aim of fomenting a dispute between us and our brothers (in Syria)."
Syria's involvement in Lebanon dates back to 1976, when it sent its troops to Lebanon to help quell a year-old civil war that raged on for another 14 years. The West tolerated its control and even credited Syria with securing stability.
But since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Western nations have been calling for democracy to take hold in the Arab world as a way to fight extremism - and President Bush's administration has repeatedly accused Syria of sponsoring terrorism.
The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, calls for "the strict respect of Lebanon's sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence."
It "demands that Syrian forces withdraw without delay from Lebanon" and declares the Security Council's "support for a free and fair electoral process in Lebanon's upcoming presidential election conducted according to Lebanese constitutional rules devised without foreign interference or influence."
The Lebanese Cabinet last week approved an amendment to the constitution to allow Lahoud to stay in power three more years.
Parliament, instead of voting for a new president for the next six years, will have to vote on an extension to Lahoud's term, which expires Nov. 24. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called late Tuesday for a meeting of the 128-member legislature on Friday to amend the constitution to extend Lahoud's term.
The draft resolution asks Secretary-General Kofi Annan to report on implementation within 30 days. It was not drafted under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, so military action would not be an option.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said in a letter to the Security Council that U.N. action would be "a dangerous precedent."
with the support of France,
I like it. I like it a lot. Beginning to decouple Syria and Lebanon would help Israel's security and help contain Syria.
I don't fully understand the Lebanese dynamic today, but as much as I think Syria is a major force for evil in the middle-east, I do beleive they helped to stop the civil war there. Now, have they been a haven for Hezbollah? You bet. It just concerns me what happens when a strong presence is withdrawn from Lebanon. Will it sink back into the muck that it crawled out of over the last couple of decades? I do think Syria should withdraw, but I won't be surprised if it isn't the boon some people think it will be.
I think Iran and Syria should be next on the hit-parade, so don't get me wrong. There's no love lost between me and the Syrian government.
You know, we need to apologise to the civilized world for fosting the UN on them, it was a bad idea.
Syria engineered the "civil war". Of course it stopped once Syria got what it wanted.
All Europe should be concerned.
Great-- then lets send the Caterpillers into the Bekka Valley and dig up them WMDs.
Interesting development. Wonder how Kerry will try to spin it.
This is the true nerve pressure point. This could get interesting.
Maybe find those WMD's,in return Syrians get to exist.
Well, that's probably a factor that certainly played in. You may be right. My take was that Palestinian refugees and other malcontents in Lebanon rebelled against Christian rule there. That being said, it doesn't seem unreasonable to consider that Syria was agitating the situation.
Sometimes I think we take the easy way out, blaming too much on neighbor states in the middle-east. IMO, the Euro cash that has flooded into the region has facilitated a large part of the terrorism that has taken place over the last 40 years.
They send it in for humanitarian purposes, and the funds are diverted to weapons and tactics. Of course Europe knows this, but they don't seem to care.
Turning up the heat. Now let's tell Syria to turn over Saddam's WMDs.
There you go!
That's an interesting take. It may be dead on target.
This move has been a long time coming. Syria annexed Lebanon years ago and nobody said boo.
And maybe while the world's attention is focused on Syria and Lebanon, we'll take care of business in Iran.
After watching the RNC , I think Kerry is so 'yesterday's news'. So, I don't think he, or his spin, is relevant now. He's already a footnote.
Hope you enjoy this...
MEIB article from their archives....
My Title.....Bashar Assad gets burned in Lebanon by everyone.....goes home and pouts : )
I agree with you....Syria could pull its troop..but the terror orgs and extortion gangsters would only shuffle around some.
It may actually enable Hezballah more....unless someone wants to arm up Amal in the north and set them against each other.
Palies are nobody now in Lebanon except squatters.
MEIB has excellent coverage on Lebanon and Syria.
Syrian soldiers pay no taxes...consume Lebanons resorces..get their daughters pregnant or defile them.....and extort the roadways of Lebanon for their French looking leader.
Lebanon needs to break with all of it...and that includes Hezballah....sister cells Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
but can they?
If France gets back in..they will simply Bank manage Lebanon...take what Syria has been getting for so long.
Maybe pushing Ericcson out of the cellular market their.....replace it with a French cellular corporation.
All that terrorist activity makes for a lively cell market : )
My musing was pure schadenfreude. Part of me wants to watch him suffer. :o)
It never ceased to amaze me how the UN found it intolerable that Israel had troops in Lebanon [that were there to remove foreigners sending katayushas southward], yet uttered not a peep of complaint about thousands of Syrians stationed there since the mid-70s.
Once upon a time, Lebanon was the envy of the Arab world. For more than a generation, it has not even been a nation. Syria's continued presence is a major reason.
The UN has had no complaint about this because the majority of its membership nations have gov'ts not legitimized by popular mandate either. An international org dedicated to preserve dictatorships?
If that's not reactionary, what is?
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