Beirut government backs Syrian troop presence despite demonstrations
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Monday, May 15, 2000
NICOSIA [MENL] -- Lebanese government leaders have dismissed demonstrations
that call for a Syrian troop withdrawal from their country.
Instead, the leaders have joined with Hizbullah commanders to praise the
Syrian troop presence and Syrian President Hafez Assad.
In Beirut, government troops broke up a demonstration by labor unions.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched to call for an end to Syria's occupation
of the Lebanon.
Both government leaders and Hizbullah said they support Syrian military
presence in Lebanon. They said they will follow the lead of the Assad regime
and launch a government campaign against corruption.
In the eastern Lebanese town of Douris, government leaders inaugurated a
monument to Assad. Defense Minister Ghazi Zaitar represented President
Emile Lahoud at the ceremony to unveil the three-meter bronze statue of
Assad in the Bekaa Valley.
"We would like to see the mutual confidence enjoyed today by Lebanon
and Syria shored up by budding generations and baptized in honesty," Zaitar
said.
Lebanese Oil Minister Suleiman Traboulsi showered Assad with praise,
calling him Salah Eddin, the Arab hero who ousted the Crusaders from
Jerusalem nearly 800 years ago.
Lebanese parliamentarian Mahmoud Abu Hamdan, who represented speaker
Nabi Berri, went even further. "No one can hold water to President Assad,"
Abu Hamdan said. "This man possess the very male virility. After the civil
war, no one offered to arm the Lebanese soldiers except Syria."
Monday, May 15, 2000
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