LEBANON: LEBANESE OPPOSITION REITERATES ITS DEMAND FOR SYRIAN TROOPS AND INTELLIGENCE AGENTS TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY

Record ID: 276746

  • Title: LEBANON: LEBANESE OPPOSITION REITERATES ITS DEMAND FOR SYRIAN TROOPS AND INTELLIGENCE AGENTS TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY
  • Date: 2nd March 2005
  • Summary: (BN15) MUKHTARA, CHOUF MOUNTAIN, LEBANON (MARCH 2, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OPPOSITION FIGURES AT A GENERAL MEETING IN MUKHTARA (9 SHOTS) 0.56 2. MP AHMAD FATFAT LEAVING WITH OPPOSITION LEADER WALID JUMBLAT 1.02 3. WIDE OF FATFAT AND JUMBLAT AT PRESS CONFERENCE / CAMERA CREWS (2 SHOTS) 1.08 4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) MP AHMAD FATFAT
  • Embargoed: 17th March 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MUKHTARA,CHOUF MOUNTAIN, LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVA5HPK3097RACY5Q58VSHIK0USG
  • Story Text: Lebanese opposition group reiterate demand for a
    pullout of Syrian army and its intelligence from Lebanon.


    Lebanon's opposition on Wednesday (March 2) demanded
    Syrian troops and intelligence agents leave their country and
    Syrian-backed Lebanese security chiefs resign.

    The opposition said in a statement that pro-Syrian President
    Emile Lahoud must accept the demands before they would join
    any discussions on forming a new government.

    Two weeks of demonstrations forced the pro-Syrian government
    of Prime Minister Omar Karami to quit on Monday, leaving
    officials with a complex search for a new head of
    government.

    "The ... step that the opposition considers essential in its
    demands on the road to salvation and independence is the
    total withdrawal of the Syrian army and intelligence service from
    Lebanon," said the statement read by MP Ahmad Fatfat.

    "This step requires an official announcement from Syria's
    president on the withdrawal of the Syrian forces and its
    intelligence from Lebanon," he said.

    Angry protesters blamed Syria and the government, either
    directly or indirectly, for the Feb. 14 assassination of
    former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Syria denies the
    charge.

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Time magazine in an
    interview published this week that Syria's 14,000 troops might
    pull out of Lebanon in the next few months, with the timing
    technical, not political.

    Washington expressed scepticism. "What is needed now is not
    rhetoric -- whether private or public. What is needed is
    action on the ground," said David Satterfield, a senior
    U.S. State Department official who visited Lebanon this
    week.

    The Lebanese opposition meeting called for protesters to
    keep up overnight vigils held over the past week.

    Several hundred people waving the red-and-white Lebanese
    flag gathered at Martyrs Square, next to Hariri's grave,
    on Wednesday evening. Loudspeakers blared nationalist songs
    and cars beeped their horns in support as they drove
    past.

    Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri said after talks with
    President Emile Lahoud that contacts were under way on how
    the president would consult deputies on naming a prime
    minister-designate. The two men have close links to
    Syria.

    "I was the first to warn against stepping into (a power)
    vacuum. Now everyone has to rise to the level of their
    national duty," Berri told reporters.

    Market fears of a political vacuum in Lebanon put the
    Lebanese pound under pressure for a second day on Wednesday,
    forcing the central bank to dig into its foreign exchange
    reserves to defend the currency.

    Lebanon's main opposition figures, buoyed by the government's
    fall, announced their demands after meeting at the mountain
    palace of main opposition figure Walid Jumblatt.

    "Only if the authorities agree on these conditions we might
    take part (in talks on government) formation," Druze chief
    Jumblatt told reporters.

    A neutral government should be formed, the opposition said,
    composed of people not standing in the May general elections
    and acceptable to most Lebanese.

    Lebanon's internal crisis has piled pressure on Syria, already
    under international fire for its dominant role in its tiny
    neighbour and accusations by Washington that it is involved
    in violence in Iraq and Israel.

    Washington and Paris, co-sponsors of U.N. Security Council
    Resolution 1559 demanding Syria withdraw, have called for
    the May elections to be free and suggested international
    assistance.

    Syria's ambassador to London said on Wednesday Damascus was
    redefining its Lebanon policy.

    "The president has indicated the deep feelings of the Syrians
    that they don't want to stay in Lebanon if the Lebanese don't
    want them," the ambassador, Sami Khiyami, told Reuters.

    A U.N. team on Wednesday continued its inquiry into Hariri's
    death, retracing his last movements before his motorcade was
    blown up in a massive blast on Beirut's seafront.

    Rescue workers and family members found under the rubble the
    body of a man missing since the blast, taking the toll to 19.


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