VARIOUS: UNITED NATIONS ENVOY TERJE ROED-LARSEN SAYS HE IS ENCOURAGED BY TALKS WITH SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD

Record ID: 338354

  • Title: VARIOUS: UNITED NATIONS ENVOY TERJE ROED-LARSEN SAYS HE IS ENCOURAGED BY TALKS WITH SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD
  • Date: 12th February 2005
  • Summary: (BN14) DAMASCUS, SYRIA (FEBRUARY 10, 2005)(REUTERS) 1. GV DAMASCUS SKYLINE 0.05 2. NEWS CONFERENCE WITH SENIOR U.N. ENVOY TERJE ROED-LARSEN 0.12 3. (SOUNDBITE)(English) TERJE ROED-LARSEN, SENIOR U.N. ENVOY, SAYING: "I think we are now engaged in a deep and cooperative partnership in the best interest of Lebanon and Syria. This partnership and dialogue naturally aims not at weakening but strengthening the natural unity and sovereignty of Lebanon." 0.31 4. CAMERA OPERATOR 0.35 5. (SOUNDBITE)(English) TERJE ROED-LARSEN, SENIOR UN ENVOY, SAYING: "Today, against the backdrop of my meetings in Lebanon I also met at length with President Bashar Al-Assad in a meeting that was, like all my previous meetings with the President, extremely encouraging and constructive. I also delivered a written message from the Secretary General to the President in the course of this meeting." 0.56 6. NEWS CONFERENCE 1.01 (BN14) BEIRUT, LEBANON (FEBRUARY 10, 2005) (REUTERS) 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEBANESE OPPOSITION LEADER, WALID JUMBLATT SAYING: "It depends on the Syrian-Lebanese security apparatus who is there to interfere everywhere. We have to try to block it and to try to have fair elections but in a police state it is not so easy." 1.19 8. OFFICE LAMP 1.23 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) JUMBLATT SAYING: "Look we would like the Syrians to get out but we don't want to humiliate the Syrians and we will be staying as Lebanese and Syrians as good neighbours but we don't want them also to impose on our country their own system." 1.41 10. JUMBLATT OPENING CURTAINS 1.46 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 27th February 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DAMASCUS, SYRIA AND BEIRUT, LEBANON
  • City:
  • Country: Lebanon Syria
  • Reuters ID: LVA120CMWSIFJ7O1FGQCXI49MFFK
  • Story Text: UN envoy encouraged by talks with Syria's Assad
    A senior United Nations envoy said on Thursday (February 10, 2005)
    he had held highly encouraging talks with the Syrian president about a U.N.

    resolution calling for Syrian troops to pull out of neighbouring Lebanon.

    "I also met at length with President Bashar Al-Asad in a meeting
    that was, like all my previous meetings with the President, extremely
    encouraging and constructive," Terje Roed-Larsen, sent to oversee
    implementing the controversial resolution, told reporters after meeting
    President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

    Syrian officials have often criticised U.N. Security Council resolution
    1559 as an infringement on a bilateral arrangement between Damascus and
    Beirut.

    The official Syrian news agency said on Monday (February 7) that Syrian
    Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara had discussed with Roed-Larsen the
    "negative impact" of the resolution on Lebanon, where opposition
    figures are clamouring for Syria to withdraw.

    The envoy then left without meeting Assad as expected.

    In an apparent comment on the report, Roed-Larsen said:
    "I think we are now engaged in a deep and cooperative partnership
    in the best interest of Lebanon and Syria. This partnership and dialogue
    naturally aims not at weakening but at strengthening the national unity and
    sovereignty of Lebanon."
    Leading Lebanese opposition figure Walid Jumblatt said on Thursday
    (February 10) it would be difficult to ensure fair elections in May because
    the country was a "police state" in the grip of Syria.

    Jumblatt called on Syria, which has 14,000 troops in its tiny
    neighbour, to leave, a central demand of the disparate opposition movement,
    which is gaining momentum ahead of the vote.

    Jumblatt wields considerable influence in Lebanon and among the large
    Druze community, a secretive sect that emerged about 1,000 years ago as an
    offshoot of Islam.

    He said the power of the international and Lebanese press, unusually
    vibrant for the Arab world, and removing "Soviet, draconian laws"
    would be the main ways to thwart Syria's grip.

    The election is likely to be the most hotly contested since the end of
    the 1975-90 civil war, with Syria a central issue.

    Many Lebanese say Jumblatt has changed tack by supporting a U.S.-backed
    United Nations resolution calling for Syrian troops to leave and Hizbollah
    guerrillas to disarm.

    He said he had no objection where resolution 1559 aimed to deliver an
    independent Lebanon, but that the withdrawal should be gradual, in line with
    the Taif agreement that ended the war.

    "We would like the Syrians to get out, but we don't want to
    humiliate the Syrians and we will be staying, as Lebanese and Syrians, good
    neighbours," he said.


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