Posted on 03/02/2005 8:56:04 AM PST by GulfBreeze
Bush Demands That Syria Leave Lebanon Bush Demands That Syria Get Out of Lebanon, Saying the World Is Speaking With One Voice By NEDRA PICKLER The Associated Press Mar. 2, 2005 - President Bush on Wednesday demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon, saying the free world is in agreement that Damascus' authority over the political affairs of its neighbor must end now.
He applauded the strong message sent to Syria when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier held a joint news conference on London on Tuesday.
"Both of them stood up and said loud and clear to Syria, `You get your troops and your secret services out of Lebanon so that good democracy has a chance to flourish," Bush said during an appearance at a community college in Maryland to tout his job training programs.
The world, Bush said, "is speaking with one voice when it comes to making sure that democracy has a chance to flourish in Lebanon."
The president's words, taken with those from Rice and others in the Bush administration this week, amount to the strongest pressure to date on Syria from Washington.
"Syria knows the concerns of the international community, and they know what they need to do to change their behavior and become a constructive member of the region and the international community," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said earlier Wednesday.
Turkish ambassador Osman Faruk Logoglu urged the administration to offer trade and other economic and diplomatic incentives to Syria.
"The chances of Syria withdrawing are greater than ever before," Logoglu told reporters. "But it is obviously going to take a long time."
Rice, in London to attend an international conference on Palestinian security and government reform, had said Tuesday that Syria is "out of step" with a growing desire for democracy in the Middle East.
The Bush administration also on Tuesday blamed terrorists based in Syria for last week's deadly suicide attack in Israel.
McClellan said the White House has "firm evidence" that Syria was home base for the terrorist attack in Israel that rocked the latest efforts for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Bush made a similar point during a White House meeting with congressional leaders, participants said, and so did Rice while in London.
All key Lebanese political decisions are assumed to have a stamp of approval from the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Huge street demonstrations and Monday's resignation of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government marked the most serious challenge to Syrian authority in Lebanon since the end of the civil war that killed 150,000 and crushed the Lebanese economy in the 1970s and 1980s.
The events also were an opening for the Bush administration to press its wider goal of democracy across the Middle East and to throw a spotlight on what the United States contends is long-standing Syrian support for terrorists who are trying to undermine progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace.
At the news conference with Barnier, Rice said their two countries would support the scheduled election this spring in Lebanon, perhaps by sending observers and monitors.
She also suggested international peacekeepers might be needed eventually and could help secure democracy for the Lebanese if Syria were to withdraw.
Assad indicated in an interview with Time magazine that he would withdraw Syria's 15,000 troops from Lebanon "maybe in the next few months." Later, however, a Syrian official speaking on condition of anonymity in Damascus questioned whether it could occur within months.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, on Capitol Hill after a trip to Lebanon, was dismissive of what he called the "rhetoric" out of Damascus.
"Neither this government nor the people of Lebanon will believe anything other than what we see with our eyes," Satterfield told the Senate Foregin Relations Committee.
Separately, on the issue of Iran's nuclear program, Rice indicated that the administration was working with European leaders on a plan to offer Iran economic incentives in exchange for abandoning its nuclear ambitions. The United States has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
"We are designing, I think, an important common strategy with Europe so that Iran knows there is no other way," Rice said in a brief interview aired Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show.
Until recently, the administration had opposed any rewards for Tehran's cooperation. But during the president's trip overseas last week, European leaders urged Bush to join them in offering incentives such as possible membership at some time for Iran in the World Trade Organization and the White House suggested he would consider that route.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures
No more than was fighting for Poland when we entered WWII.
George W Bush, bringing democracy to a neighborhood near you. Oooorahhh, get some!
President Bush demanded that Syrian get out of Lebanon, saying the free world is in agreement that Damascus' authority over the political affairs of its neighbor must end now, speaking during an appearance at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Md., to tout his job training programs, Wednesday, March 2, 2005. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A Lebanese woman chants slogans and waves a Lebanon flag, as she and others take part in an anti-Syria demonstration in Martyr's Square, central Beirut, Wenesday, March 2, 2005. United States' President George W. Bush on Wednesday demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon, saying the free world is in agreement that Damascus' authority over the political affairs of its neighbor must end now. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
A Lebanese protester waves a flag during a daily sit-in in the capital Beirut, March 2, 2005. Lebanon's top pro-Syrian officials held talks on Wednesday on selecting a new prime minister.
Lebanese flags fly near the martyrs statue in Beirut. Lebanon's opposition held talks with the Syrian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah in the hope of persuading the group to join its ranks to win a Syrian troop pullout.(AFP/Patrick Baz)
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. Israel dismissed comments by Assad that Damascus will recall its troops from neighbouring Lebanon in the next few months.(AFP/File/Louai Beshara)
After all these years of despotism, Syria is a sewer without much in the way of current assets.
I had a good friend who was in the Korean War. He said the Turkish contingent were superb fighters and always good to have protecting your flank. I agree that it's been somewhat up and down since then. But things really turned sour with the Iraqi war.
President Bush has invited the Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir for a meeting at the White House on March 16. Patriarch of the powerful Maronite Catholic Church, he is a leader of opposition to Syrian occupation.
The White House spokesman said the cardinal is "respected throughout Lebanon and around the world for his religious leadership and for promoting intra-communal harmony among the different faiths in his country.
"He is an important voice for Lebanese independence, freedom and democracy," the White House spokesman said.(AFP)
The tentative schedule of events is as follows and please this is tentative:
Mon. 3/14: Arrival of Patriarch in evening to Washington, DC
Tue. 3/15: Honorary Doctorate at Catholic University
Wed. 3/16: Private Meeting with President Bush
Thu. 3/17: Private Luncheon with Members of both Houses; Inter-Eparchial celebration: Mass at 6:00 pm at the National Shrine, banquet to follow
Fri. 3/18: Arrive in Brooklyn: 12:00 pm Private Lunch with Archbishop Migliore at United Nations; 7:00 pm Lenten devotions at Cathedral; Honorary Doctorate from Fordham University, followed by Lenten meal
Sat. 3/19: (Feast of St. Joseph): 5:00 Liturgy at Cathedral; 7:00 pm Banquet
Sun. 3/20: 11:00 am Palm Sunday celebration at Cathedral
Mon. 3/21: Return to Lebanon
The Maronite Church is one of the Eastern Catholic Churches. For more information on the Church's two 'lungs':
"oh no oh no.. why GW will only anger them and cause to attack us more!...." excerpt taken your average lib... lmao
W's crosshairs are set on Syria... whaaamm!
If Gore/Kerry had been presidents, we would not be witnessing historic times.
Nedra Pickler?? I remember Rush mentioning her more than once as she covered the campaign
I'm begging you - PLEASE...do not insert the word President anywhere near the name of the traitor. Thanking you in advance.
Countdown to how long it takes the Syrians to respond that the "hypocritical" U.S. should get out of Afghanistan and Iraq...
Not that they're remotely the same, I just see it coming. And I see the left making hay with it.
Bump!
President Washington: "The Great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled, with perfect good faith. Here let us stop."
My, how times have changed.
Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.
She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....--John Quincy Adams
Times have changed indeed.
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