Massacre unites Lebanon, reminds world of Syrian occupation
UNITED NATIONS — The St. Valentines Day massacre of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and fifteen others on Beirut’s fashionable seafront, brings back memories most people would rather forget. The sophisticated car bomb which shattered the calm, echoed the long civil war and the interminable factional chaos which befell this small but sought after land until not long ago.
Whether neighboring Syria — as most Lebanese of all religious persuasions suspect — is the prime suspect behind this assassination, is not even the prime issue. Rather it remains the continuing occupation of Lebanon by Syrian military forces since the late 1970’s. That occupation has brought about a sinister sphere of influence, which not only controls the current pro-Syrian Lebanese government but threatens to trigger factional chaos in what had become a calm part of the Middle East. Those opposing Syrian sub rosa rule have often been assassinated.
Despite its genuine and resourceful economic rebound from the religious and political proxy war of 1975-1990 — largely thanks to the unambiguous business and entrepreneurial instincts of Prime Minister Hariri — Lebanon is still shadowed by the Syrian falcon. The continuing military occupation has turned this once relatively rich and cosmopolitan country into a playground for Syrian intelligence rackets, Hezbollah terrorists, and assorted drug dealers.
But last September in a little noticed but notable example of Franco/American political cooperation, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for “the withdrawal of all remaining foreign forces, the disbanding of all militias, and the extension of government control over the entire country.” Syria maintains 14,000 troops in the tiny country. Just a week before the assassination, a UN envoy visited Beirut and Damascus to press for a Syrian military pullout. Iran also backs a 15,000 member Hezbollah militia and has also stationed a 400 member unit of its Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon.
Immediately after the ex-Prime Minister’s murder, the UN Security Council condemned the attack unequivocally and called on the Lebanese government to bring the perpetrators to justice. The Council called on “all parties to cooperate fully in the restoration of the territory integrity, full sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon and in the fight against terrorism.”
The Daily Star newspaper of Beirut added editorially, “Hariri’s slaying is a momentous event, yet the most pressing concern right now is not who pulled the trigger: the United States and France may have already decided that Damascus has Hariri’s blood on its hands…the pressing concern of the moment is how to prevent Lebanon from tottering over the brink of the abyss.” The editorial added, “The leadership in Damascus and Beirut have to act very quickly to head off international intervention that could once again make a wilderness of the Levant.”
The Syrian role goes back a long time. Fouad Ajami writing in the Wall Street Journal opines, “A Syrian political and military class around the wily and shrewd leader Hafez al-Assad had come to a belief that Lebanon was its rightful claim. The Lebanese had been careless: they had feuded among themselves, and the Syrians had ridden those jealousies and the pretext of an Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon — into veritable acquisition of their Western neighbor by the Mediterranean.” He added, “The Syrians had uses for Lebanon; there was money there for the Syrian kleptocracy, opportunities for drug dealers and contraband; a border from which the Syrians could wage interment little wars and deeds of terror against Israel.”
“This steady encroachment on Lebanon was aided and abetted by the silence of the world,” Prof. Ajami adds painfully.
Now what? Both Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran have announced a United Front against its “enemies”. In fact both regimes have long a shared a radical political libretto; anti-American, anti-Israel and proud spoilers to any Middle East peace process. But given Washington’s knowing glare, the rulers in Damascus have gone running to the mullahs in Teheran for support. This is hardly surprising as it is telltale. Syria, labeled an “outpost of tyranny,” by the Bush Administration, has good reason to be wary. Let’s not forget that Syria remains a conduit for weapons and Islamic jihadi fighters slipping into Iraq.
Lebanese Christians and Muslims have shown an uncommon unity in condemning Syria’s occupation which remains a stumbling block to true independence and sovereignty. Hariri’s killers have united a strong and vocal segment of a society that fears not only the present, but slipping back into the past.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense
issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.  |
