A second attempt to impose restrictions on the Syrian role in Lebanon through the UN failed again this week, Mohalhel Fakih reports Syria and Lebanon are bracing for another United Nations Security Council condemnation. The UN Security Council is expected to again declare both countries in breach of a crucial resolution that Damascus described as a "mistake" and a "blatant intervention" in its ties with Beirut. In a hard-hitting speech, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad denied that Damascus politically controls Lebanon and accused Washington and Paris of seeking to throw "the most stable countries in the Middle East," into the "eye of the volcano", now extending from Iraq to the Palestinian territories. "Do they want to throw this region, with no exception, in the eye of the volcano?" Al-Assad told a conference of Syrian expatriates in Damascus on Saturday. He said his country paid with "blood" to stabilise Lebanon during the 1975-1990 civil war and during Israel's 1982 invasion, and rescued Lebanese Christians from "massacres". However, a prominent Christian opposition figure said the war is now behind. "The Lebanese are convinced that any discord harms all the Lebanese. No one wants to shake civil peace. If someone wants to plant sedition in the country the opposition will do all it can to prevent it from happening," MP Boutros Harb, a Qornet Shehwan member, told Al-Ahram Weekly, as Lebanese of various convictions react to warnings that civil strife could re-ignite. The Syrian leader's speech also carried a message to the US and France who co- sponsored Security Council Resolution 1559 last month. Resolution 1559 called on Damascus to withdraw its troops from Lebanon and for Beirut to disarm Hizbullah. Resolution 1559 was supposed to preempt the extension of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. But Washington said Syrian pressure forced Lebanon's parliament to amend the constitution and extend the head of state's term in office for three more years. "Syria had announced it would not intervene in the election -- but we were surprised that the campaign against the extension and President Emile Lahoud, and later against Syria, continued, amid persistent efforts at the Security Council to draft a resolution against Syria," Al- Assad said. He charged that Resolution 1559, which had warned against intervention in the presidential ballot, was a pretext to "internationalise" the internal situation in Lebanon, throw the country back into the chaos of the 1980s, and harm Lebanese-Syrian relations. The Syrian leader's speech was equally critical of the Lebanese opposition parties. Al-Assad credited his country's troops with halting the "massacre" that was committed against the Christians in the name of "political reform, justice and progressive socialism" all slogans of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's late father Kamal Jumblatt, during the civil war. As if to highlight displeasure with Jumblatt, Assad did not mention the almost equal number of massacres committed by Christians against the Druze in Mount Lebanon during the same period. Walid Jumblatt has been at the receiving end of Syria's scathing criticism targeting the opposition. The former ally of Damascus had strongly rejected the extension of Lahoud's term in office as "illegitimate" and demanded Syria and Lebanon forge "balanced" ties. His Progressive Socialist Party, along with allies representing a wide array of Lebanese confessions and political leanings, is now coordinating with the Christian opposition Qornet Shehwan Gathering. It is an unprecedented development in post-war Lebanon since the anti-Syrian opposition was limited to Christian Maronites. This time around many Muslim figures have joined the opposition. Washington and Paris have been arguing that Lebanon is now stable and does not need Syria's presence. They also accuse Damascus of heavy-handed political involvement. However, Lebanon and Syria say bilateral agreement regulate their ties, and that they have been implementing the Taif peace accord which ended the war in 1990. It called for Syria to redeploy troops from Lebanon in stages ahead of a pullout. Damascus linked a withdrawal, which should have been completed, to peace with Israel, and recently redeployed 3,000 soldiers, keeping 14,000 troops in the country. "Why would Syria want to control Lebanon, did we ask for money, for natural resources, is there oil that we want, did we take electricity, did we take water? We did not take anything. We provided blood," Al-Assad said. Lebanon's political class is galvanised over Syria's role. The Maronite Church lashed out at Damascus blaming Syria for endemic corruption and an absence of sovereignty. But allies of Syria, led by Hizbullah, have warned that the country could face dire consequences if Syria's role is weakened. They say the UN is under US pressure, on Israel's behalf, to force a resettlement of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and to secure further concessions in the moribund Middle East peace process, contrary to Lebanese interests. MP Nasser Qandil said Syria was punished at the UN for not "imposing" on the Lebanese a resettlement of Palestinians. He hailed Al-Assad for "standing up" against "this deal even if it included authority in Lebanon, the return of the Golan (Heights) and an acknowledgement of Syria's role in Iraq." "We thank Syria if it is supporting us against a resettlement, but that does not mean yielding our independence and sovereignty. Our battle is to keep Lebanon an independent country," opposition MP Boutros Harb told the Weekly. The stark divisions have impeded efforts to form a government. Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri, who previously opposed an extension of his rival Lahoud's term in office, has been trying to include the opposition in a new government to end the political deadlock. But the opposition, including Harb's colleagues in Qornet Shehwan and Jumblatt, spurned the offer. They claim calls for dialogue were not serious and that Syria remains the real powerbroker in Lebanon. Anticipating further domestic and foreign pressure, Al-Assad made clear that "Lebanon's responsibility towards Syria and Syria's responsibility towards Lebanon will continue despite all the circumstances." Al-Assad's speech, according to Ali Hamadeh, an ally of Jumblatt, amounted to a "war on international intervention in Lebanon and against the opposition".
