War (of Words) with Syria
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Sunday, May 04, 2003
Hizbollah, Hamas Brush Off Powell's Syria Demands
Reuters -- May 4
By Joseph Logan
BEIRUT - Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas said on Sunday they were confident Lebanon and Syria would not bow to U.S. demands to rein them in and vowed to keep up armed resistance to Israel.
The militant Palestinian group Hamas, whose Damascus office Washington demands Syria close to get in line with U.S. plans for the Middle East after the Iraq war, also shrugged off U.S. pressure and said its fight with Israel would continue.
"I doubt anyone would answer their call, for as long as there is (Israeli) occupation, no one can even propose disarming the resistance," Sheikh Hassan Izzedine, a senior official of Syrian and Iranian-backed Hizbollah, told Reuters.
"We are not worried a bit about the future and we consider ourselves people with a just cause and we reject any threat."
Since helping drive Israel from south Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year-occupation, Hizbollah has periodically clashed with Israeli troops in a disputed border zone that Lebanon and Syria claim is Lebanese, but which the United Nations sees as Syrian land occupied by Israel.
Lebanon has resisted pressure to fully deploy its army in the area, and Hizbollah officials on Sunday echoed the Lebanese government's argument that doing so would be tantamount to guaranteeing the Jewish state's security.
"We have to distinguish between sending the army to the border...and the army being protection for Israel, defending the Zionist entity and being a policeman for Israel in the region," Hussein Khalil, an aide to Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, told Hizbollah's TV station.
[Oops, this story has changed slightly since I linked it.]
Militant groups shrug off Powell
BBC -- May 4
Militant Palestinian groups have shrugged off US pressure on Syria and Lebanon to stop supporting them, saying it will have no impact.
"This is just talk, it's a storm in a cup because we are merely media offices," Abu Jihad Talaat of Islamic Jihad told Reuters news agency.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official speaking from Lebanon, said: "The Americans know well that our presence is part of the Palestinian presence in Syria and Lebanon and that it's not voluntary.
"It is forced, because of the occupation of our land and the expulsion of Palestinians (at the creation of Israel)."
And Marwan Abou Sami, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said the groups had not been officially told to move their offices.
Israeli officials expressed doubts that Syria would crack down on militant groups.
One foreign ministry spokesman told AFP news agency: It's a good step by the United States to try to put an end to this. The future will tell but I have my doubts."
{Powell did the rounds of the Sunday talk shows. Here are some of his comments from Meet the Press.]
Powell: Syria knows what U.S. expects
CNN -- May 4
WASHINGTON -- Syrian President Bashar Assad "has no illusions" that the United States expects him to curb the activities of terrorist organizations in his country or face the consequences, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday.
[More on Powell's visit to Syria and Lebanon.]
Analysis / No more Mr. Nice Guys
Ha'aretz -- May 4
By Zvi Bar'el
In an unorthodox move that enraged Syria and Lebanon, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell held a press conference even before meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. Powell was making the point that if Syria is inviting him for "dialog," as Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara put it, Syria had better be informed publicly of the rules of this dialog and of who exactly it is who's setting them.
[Analysis of Hezbollah's threat to Israel, and likely outcome of US pressure on Syria and Lebanon.]
Analysis / Hezbollah's outposts won't be touched
Ha'aretz -- May 4
By Ze'ev Schiff
The Lebanese Army's entry into South Lebanon would be an important step, one that Damascus and Beirut have postponed repeatedly since Israel withdrew from the area in May 2000. The real question, however, is whether it will mean the evacuation of Hezbollah outposts along the Lebanese-Israeli border - and the information available to date indicates that neither Hezbollah nor Syria has any such intention.
All the signs indicate that the Lebanese Army will merely deploy on a few main roads in South Lebanon and in a few large towns where Hezbollah does not maintain a fighting force. It will apparently not deploy along the border, where Hezbollah is.
As for the Palestinian terrorist groups headquartered in Damascus, such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas, Syria continues to insist that these are merely public relations offices. Yet many orders for terrorist attacks emanate from these offices. When Damascus came under pressure to close these offices in the past, it usually kicked the leaders out of the city for a while and then gradually allowed the offices to be reopened. Israel is familiar with this trick.
Today, Jerusalem's approach is that if orders for a terror attack in Israel once again come from an office in Damascus, Israel will not overlook it. If security coordination between Israel and the new Palestinian government headed by Abu Mazen proves effective, and efforts to blow up the truce come from Damascus, Washington will surely understand an aggressive Israeli response.
CIA: Syria Harboring More Than 15 Million Known Arabs
The Onion -- April 30
LANGLEY, VA—In an alarming report released Monday by the Central Intelligence Agency, Syria may be harboring upwards of 15 million known Arabs within its borders.
via The Electronic Intifada
Syria shows no sign of ejecting terrorists
The Daily Telegraph -- May 4
Damian McElroy in Damascus reports that Colin Powell's demands that extremists be driven out of the Syrian capital are being ignored
Backgammon games at the doorway and a steady stream of fresh, sweet coffee from the scullery kept the Damascus office of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine busy yesterday, even as the US secretary of State, Colin Powell, claimed that Syria has begun forcing groups the Bush administration considers terrorist organizations to close down.
[Powell in Beirut.]
Powell Denounces Hezbollah In Lebanon
IslamOnline -- May 3
BEIRUT, May 3 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell denounced "anti-Israeli" groups Saturday, May 3, and called for the Lebanese army to end Hezbollah's presence on the Israeli border.
Powell who left Lebanon after a whistle stop, has met, before heading back to Washington his Lebanese counterpart Jean Obeid and held talks with Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri and the Lebanese President Emile Lahoud who said that neither Lebanon nor Syria will make concessions to the United States.
"Lebanon and Syria are determined not to bend to any demand that does not satisfy the peoples of the two countries and assure their vital interests" Lahoud was quoted as saying, AFP reported.
If Washington wants to resort to "applying the 'logic of force' then the visit of Powell is pointless, because threats do not need visits and can be communicated directly by telephone." Yet Lebanon is "ready for dialogue on the basis of the 'logic of law'" Lahoud added.
["WMD are bad, m'kay."]
Powell Rebuffs Syrian U.N. Move for WMD-Free Mideast
IslamOnline -- May 3
DAMASCUS (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Coming with clear-cut and strict "demands" that permit no room for compromise, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell dismissed Saturday, May 3, a Syrian U.N. proposal to make the Middle East a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
Speaking to reporters before talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Powell signaled that Washington regarded the proposal as "political" and would not support it.
"It has always been a United States goal that conditions should be created in this part of the world where no nation would have a need for weapons of mass destruction," he said.
"I am not supportive at the moment of a particular declaration that might be put forward for political purposes or to highlight the issue," Powell said.
"It remains an overall U.S. objective that we would like to see the region free from weapons of mass destruction," he added.
[Opinion piece from Beirut on the Lebanese-Syrian relationship, and the effect of US pressure.]
How will Syria leave Lebanon?
The Daily Star -- May 3
by Michael Young
As Tom Lantos showed last Saturday, US congressmen are confident enough these days to threaten the Syrians in their capital, while also insisting that they pull their soldiers out of Lebanon.