Syria and its friends buckle under pressure

Some additional information on the move towards democracy in the Middle east and the buckling of the repressive Syrian regime. - Sailor

Syria and its friends buckle under pressure

Feb 28th 2005
From The Economist Global Agenda
Source


Under growing pressure over its occupation of Lebanon and its alleged involvement in a suicide-bombing in Israel, Syria has handed over a half-brother of Saddam Hussein, suspected of fomenting Iraq’s insurgency from Syria. Lebanon's Syrian-backed government has resigned on a day of big protests in Beirut.

Reuters

Celebrating the fall of Syria's puppets




SYRIA has adamantly denied any responsibility over a suicide-bombing that killed five people in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv at the weekend—just as it has adamantly denied being behind the assassination earlier this month of Rafik al-Hariri, Lebanon’s main opposition leader, who had called for Syria to withdraw its troops from his country. But many Lebanese, the Israelis, and even, it appears, the Palestinian leadership, do not believe Syria’s protestations of innocence.

On Monday February 28th, as Israel summoned foreign ambassadors to present what it said was evidence that Syrian-backed Hizbullah militants were behind the Tel Aviv bombing, thousands of Lebanese staged anti-Syrian protests in the streets of Beirut—defying an official ban. As Lebanese parliamentarians debated a motion of no confidence in the country's pro-Syrian administration, the prime minister, Omar Karami, interrupted the proceedings to announce that his government was resigning, to avoid becoming “an obstacle to the good of the country”. This surprise announcement was not the only sign in the past few days that the pressure on Syria and its allies is beginning to bear fruit: at the weekend, Iraqi officials said that the Syrian regime had handed over to them a fugitive half-brother of Saddam Hussein.

Syria helped to put an end to Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war but, under the Taif accord that ended the war, its soldiers were supposed to leave eventually. Since 2001 the Syrian regime has reduced its troop numbers from 40,000 to 14,000 but it has shown no inclination to withdraw the rest. It has also continued to pull the strings in its smaller neighbour’s politics.

Despite their deep disagreements over Iraq, Presidents George Bush and Jacques Chirac are agreed that the Syrian occupation of Lebanon must end. They were the prime movers behind UN Security Council Resolution 1559, passed last September, which orders all foreign troops out of Lebanon. Anti-Syrian sentiment among the Lebanese had been hardening even before the murder of Hariri, who had turned against Syria and had looked set to make a comeback as prime minister in Lebanon’s forthcoming elections. Whether or not Syria connived in his killing, it has led to a further intensifying of the international and domestic pressure to pull out its soldiers. The UN’s secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has urged Syria to remove its troops by April. Last week the Syrians said they would implement the withdrawal under the Taif accord but were unclear about when.

Many Lebanese have launched what they are calling a “peaceful intifada” to push the Syrians out. Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the country's Druze minority, cheered the downfall of the pro-Syrian government, saying the “people have won”. Other opposition leaders said that protests would continue until Syria withdrew its troops. Lebanon’s own armed forces, though present on the streets during Monday’s demonstration, notably made little effort to enforce the ban on protests, though some demonstrators were turned back at checkpoints.

Besides demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, the UN’s resolution calls for the disarming of all private militias in the country. In fact, Hizbullah is the only such militia still under arms. From its southern Lebanese base, the group, which is backed by Iran as well as Syria, occasionally launches attacks on northern Israel. Since the start of a tentative Israeli-Palestinian truce in January, there have been fears that Hizbullah was seeking to recruit suicide-bombers to attack Israel. The man believed to have committed Friday’s bombing in Tel Aviv was from a faction of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group whose leaders are based in Syria’s capital, Damascus. But Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), has said that a “third party”—an apparent reference to Hizbullah—was behind the attack.

The Tel Aviv bombing is the most serious in a series of violent incidents that have tested the Israeli-Palestinian truce since it was formalised in a summit in early February between Mr Abbas and Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister. In recent days, Israel has praised the PA for its efforts to improve security, such as by closing several arms-smuggling tunnels that run under the border between Egypt and the Gaza strip. However, after the bombing, Israel criticised Mr Abbas for failing to disarm militant groups. So far, the Palestinian leader has opted for negotiating with the militants rather than attempt a crackdown against groups that enjoy a high level of popular support, with PA security forces that are still woefully inadequate.

While Israel may be inclined to show the Palestinian leadership a certain amount of patience, it may not be so tolerant towards Syria and the militant groups it harbours on its soil. Only 16 months ago, the Israeli airforce bombed a Palestinian refugee camp just 14 miles from the Syrian capital, claiming that Islamic Jihad was training terrorists there. After last weekend’s Tel Aviv bombing, Israel’s deputy defence minister, Zeev Boim, said it was “certainly possible” that Israel could strike at Syria again.

Israel would probably seek a tacit nod from America before launching any fresh attack. In an interview in Italy’s La Repubblica on Monday, Syria’s President Bashir Assad said he fears America itself is also gearing up for an attack on his country. A few days earlier, Mr Assad had told Turkey’s Hurriyet that he wanted direct talks with the Bush administration to ease tensions between the two countries.

Perhaps in an attempt to stave off either a direct American attack or American-backed Israeli reprisals, the Syrian regime appears to have assisted in the Iraqi forces’ arrest over the weekend of Saddam’s half-brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti, who is suspected of having directed the Iraqi insurgency from Syria. Some reports said the Syrians arrested Mr Sabawi and handed him over to the Iraqis, others that he was detained inside Iraq, along with a group of insurgents. Mr Assad’s government was recently presented by the Iraqis with a list of insurgents, suspected of hiding in Syria, that they want handed over. If the fear of American-backed military action is now forcing Mr Assad to be more helpful, the Iraqis’ attempts to round up the ringleaders of the insurgency should receive a welcome boost.