War (of Words) with Syria
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Monday, May 12, 2003
[How relations between the US and Iran may affect relations between Israel, Lebanon and Syria.]
US and Iran hold secret talks after 23 years of hostility
The Independent -- May 13
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
The United States and Iran have held secret talks that could have an important bearing on the interlocking problems of Afghanistan, the future government of Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Though Bush administration officials denied yesterday the dialogue could lead to a normalisation of relations, senior representatives of the two countries have had three rounds of talks this year.
The next session is due next week in Geneva – technically under the auspices of the United Nations, but in practice they are bilateral discussions between the Iranians and an American team led by Zalmay Khalilzad, President George Bush's special envoy for Afghanistan and Iraq.
The contacts were disclosed as the Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami, began a historic visit to Beirut. He was expected to make a nod in the direction of one important demand by Washington – for Hizbollah guerrillas, who operate from Lebanon and are backed by Tehran, to rein in attacks on Israeli-occupied territories.
In oblique confirmation of Iran's desire to lower the temperature with the US, Rafik al-Hariri, the Lebanese Prime Minister, declared after talks with Mr Khatami yesterday that neither wanted to inflame tensions in the region, and would press for a diplomatic solution. "We still have in Lebanon part of our land occupied, the Syrians have the Golan Heights. All these need to be solved," Mr Hariri said, referring to the Shebaa farms and to the territory Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
[Exceprt from a review of "Water Wars: Drought, Flood, Folly, and the Politics of Thirst" by Diane Raines Ward.]
Water, water everywhere, but too few drops for all
The Sun -- May 11
It's easy to believe, for instance, that the tension in the Middle East is all about religion and nationalism. Take the Six-Day War of 1967. According to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, "In reality, it started two-and-a-half years earlier, on the day Israel decided to act against the diversion of the Jordan [River]."
Israel, through the canals and pipes of its National Water Carrier, had been diverting water from the Jordan River to deliver water to its people. The Jordan has its source in several streams that originate in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Arab League leaders, angered by the water diversion downstream, decided to do their own diversion upstream.
Israel warned its neighbors that if they tried to cut off any of the water supply there would be hell to pay. They did, and there was. Israel bombed water projects on the Hasbani and Wazzani rivers in Lebanon and the Yarmouk River dam in Syria, then annexed the Golan Heights, thus ensuring control of the Jordan River's headwaters.
After war, Syria speeds reforms
The Washington Post via MSNBC -- May 12
By Alan Sipress
DAMASCUS, Syria — For more than 20 years, Syrian boys and girls have worn military-style school uniforms, olive green with stripes on their epaulets to signify their grade and caps to match.
[Another Commonwealth Club speaker.]
ISRAEL'S CURRENT SECURITY CHALLENGES: AN INSIDER'S VIEW OF ISRAELI STRATEGIC THINKING
MONDAY MAY 19 | INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
ARIEH O'SULLIVAN, Military Correspondent, The Jerusalem Post
How will Israel face the impact of American action in the new Middle East? O'Sullivan has covered the Israeli defense establishment for 13 years and will examine its options regarding the Palestinians, Iraq, and the strategic relationship with the United States.
[Commonwealth Club, the nation's largest and oldest public affairs forum, hosts a speaker who will discuss Hezbollah.]
HIZBOLLAH: THE NEW POLITICAL/MILITARY MODEL
DWIGHT JAMES SIMPSON, Ph.D., Professor of International Relations, San Francisco State University
Hizbollah is an active political party in Lebanon, with elected representation in the Lebanese Parliament. Its military wing engaged Israeli occupation forces and the Israeli-sponsored South Lebanese Army, both of whom withdrew from Lebanese territory. Simpson's analysis of Hizbollah is based on extensive field experience throughout the Middle East, including a rare interview with Hizbollah leader Sheikh Nasrallah.
via SF Indymedia announcement of this talk, followed by a trail of comments, including wisenheimer remarks by the editor of this page.
[Firecrackers at picnic spark international incident.]
Lebanon denies bomb thrown at Israeli town; Hezbollah ready to confront attack
AP via Ha'aretz -- May 12
BEIRUT - Lebanon yesterday denied reports that an explosive charge was thrown at an Israeli settlement from its territory, while a high ranking Hezbollah official said the guerrilla group was ready to confront any possible Israeli attack on Lebanon.
A Lebanese security official said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press that Israeli media outlets had erroneously reported that Lebanese youths had "thrown an explosive charge across the border" toward an Israeli settlement near the southern Lebanese town of Marwahin.
The statement said "picnicking youths (had thrown)... firecrackers at the mentioned area."
U.S. to Syria: Don't Be 'On Wrong Side of History'
Reuters -- May 11
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday that Syria would find itself "on the wrong side of history" if it tried to destabilize postwar Iraq or continue harboring radical Palestinian groups.
Powell spoke in an Israeli television interview after launching talks with Israel and the Palestinians on implementing a new "road map" peace plan.
He said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should have "every incentive to respond" to issues he raised in talks with him in Damascus a week ago addressing strategic change in the Middle East after the fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein in a U.S.-led war.
Washington wants Syria to help in rounding up Saddam loyalists, discourage the spread of mass-destruction weapons in the region and cease backing Palestinian and Lebanese groups that Washington classifies as terrorist, concerned that their conflict with Israel could endanger the "road map."
"What I said to (Assad) very clearly is that there are things we believe he should do if he wants a better relationship with the United States, if he wants to play a helpful role in solving the crisis in the region," Powell told Israeli TV.
"So if President Assad chooses not to respond, if he chooses to dissemble, if he chooses to find excuses, then he will find that he is on the wrong side of history," he went on.
Powell has dismissed suggestions that Syria was next on any list of U.S. military targets after Iraq.
After his meeting with Assad, Powell said Syria had taken measures to rein in Palestinian militant groups with offices in Damascus by carrying out "some closures."
Syrian officials said later the groups' offices served as media outlets and that none had been shut down. They said they were interested in dialogue, not ultimatums from Washington.
Assad, in a Newsweek magazine interview released on Saturday, linked curbing radical Palestinian groups to getting the occupied Golan Heights back from Israel.
Israel captured the Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and Assad said Syria was prepared to negotiate with Israel to get it back.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week he was ready to reopen peace negotiations with Syria but without guarantees of the outcome.
thanks, tom
Khatami In Beirut, Hizbullah High On The Agenda
IslamOnline -- May 12
BEIRUT, May 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iran's President Mohammad Khatami arrived in the Lebanese capital Beirut Monday, May 12, to a tumultuous welcome by Lebanon's Shiites for a landmark three-day visit, the first by an Iranian head of state since Tehran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Greeted at Beirut airport by the Lebanese triumvirate of President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Khatami's motorcade drove through tens of thousands of people lining the route, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
[Much ado about a few comments by two Brits in Syria. Political speech seen as criminal act by Telegraph reporter.]
British Muslim students in Syria support suicide raids
The Daily Telegraph -- May 11
By Damien Mcelroy in Damascus
British muslims studying at a radical Islamic teaching centre in Syria have admitted that they support suicide attacks against Israeli targets.
Two men, who gave their names as Amir Aziz and Tahir Sharaf, told The Telegraph that they admired the action taken by Asif Mohammed Hanif, the Briton who blew himself up in a Tel Aviv bar almost two weeks ago, and his alleged accomplice, Omar Khan Sharif.
[Interview with Bashar al Assad.]
On U.S. Demands, Iraq and Sharon
Washington Post -- May 11
Syria's 37-year-old president, Bashar Assad, is facing tough choices. Recently, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell asked Assad to stop Palestinian groups that support terrorist activities from functioning freely in Damascus, as they have for years. Moreover, Powell asked Assad to rein in Hezbollah -- the Lebanese-based terrorist group that operates with Syrian complicity. The U.S. focus on Syria intensified during the recent war, after military supplies and volunteers flowed across its border into Iraq. In Assad's first interview with a U.S. publication, he talked last week in Damascus with Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth about the U.S. pressure and the prospects for peace between Israel and Syria. Excerpts: