USCFL - Syria’s indefinite presence in Lebanon

Will Syria leave Lebanon voluntarily after Israel withdraws from its South and West Bekaa region?

Is Syria’s dictator Hafez Assad planning to leave the people of Lebanon handling their own affairs without his invisible hand constantly instigating wars from within the country?

The Lebanese people hope their "sisterly neighbor" will come to its senses and put an end to its dirty schemes against their country and its sovereignty; but they are very suspicious about the latter’s agenda, especially after President Lahoud’s most recent statement: "We have two choices, either we go back to a civil war, or coordinate internally with Syria in every domain to remain a solid interior frontier." The same threats were boldly uttered by Bachar Assad, other Syrian leaders and appointed Lebanese officials.

After the bloody events that hit South Lebanon and other areas of the country it is clear that Syria is not planning to leave Lebanon voluntarily. On the contrary it seems it is planning to continuously instigate wars and create unrest to justify the continuation of its occupation. In this context, it imposed a new electoral law, a " Syria Faraman" (passed by the puppet, rubber stamp, Lebanese Parliament on December 22,1999). The law divided the country into 14 constituencies, tailored to suit Lebanese- Syrian collaborators and puppets. In year 2000, it seems that Syria will appoint all of the 128 Members of Parliament in a fake election, as was the situation in 1992 and 1996. The year 2000 so- called Lebanese parliament will be a Syrian Parliament in Lebanon.

For the same purpose, Syria left Lebanon out of the Israeli-Syrian resumed negotiations that took place in Washington on December 16-17, 1999. Damascus also abandoned its imposed slogan "unity of the Syrian-Lebanese peace tracks" and substituted it with " "unity in signing the peace treaty" slogan. It took this mockery stance after hindering and ruining all Lebanon’s efforts during the last ten years to liberate its –Israeli occupied south and West Bekaa region through the implementation of UN Resolution 425. On another note, Mr. Sharaa infringed on Lebanon’s constitution and humiliated the Lebanese people when he, not the Lebanese government, decided when Lebanon should join the negotiation sessions. He also acted as if the Lebanese were stupid when he alleged the guerrilla issue in South Lebanon is a mere Lebanese responsibility, and that Lebanon is an independent sovereign state.

For God’s sake, who in the whole world does not know that although the guerrilla fighters and victims are Lebanese, the whole resistance matter is controlled and masterminded by Syria and Iran?

Who does not know that Syria occupies Lebanon, controls its regime, appoints and fires its officials and treats its people like slaves?

Syria is in Lebanon not to fight Israel as it alleges, but to annex the country. In this context Syria did not allow Lebanon to send its army to the city of Jezzine after the South Lebanese Army withdrew from the region. Though the US advised the Beirut Hrawi-Hariri regime to deploy Lebanon’s Army in south Lebanon several times since 1990, Syria aborted the plan. Hafez Assad personally summoned Hariri and Hrawi to Damascus to reprimand them for agreeing on the US plan.

Syria forced Lebanon to participate in the "Madrid peace Conference" though the UN resolution 425 calls on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon without the need for the Madrid formula "Land for peace", that applies to Arab countries.

Syria forced the Lebanese puppet regime to tie the fate of UN resolutions 242 and 338, that relates to the Arab land occupied in 1976, with that of 425 though Lebanon did not engage in any wars with Israel since 1946.

Is Syria considering leaving Lebanon and dealing with it as an independent sovereign state after Israel withdraws from its South? The answer is NO WAY.

On the contrary its leadership is resorting to all mean schemes in a bid to maintain their hegemony over the country. In fact, it is evident by now that the Syrian dictator Assad is even ready to go to the extreme and accept even assigning his army patrolling Israeli borders with Lebanon if this would get him Israel and the US blessings for his continued occupation of his vassal state.

Last, it is not a secret that Syria’s dictator priority is not to liberate his occupied Golan Heights, but to maintain Syria’s occupation of Lebanon. This fact was addressed several times by prominent Jordanian, Palestinian, Israeli and Egyptian officials. The only ones who pretend not to see and recognize this bitter fact are Beirut’s puppet officials.

All through its recent history, patriotic Lebanese leaders have never trusted Syria’s vicious intentions towards their country. The Lebanese had always to suffer because of Syria’s expansion schemes, in 1958, in 1975 and at present.

We believe that time has come to take a clear stance and decide if we want to live in an independent, sovereign, free, multi-cultural Lebanon, or not. We can’t keep a blind eye on Syria’s schemes anymore.

We call on the whole world to help us and pressure both Syria and Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and respect its sovereignty. We demand that an independent Lebanese delegation that represents the people of Lebanon, not the Syrians, be formed to negotiate with Israel and the UN for the implementation of UN resolutions 425 and 426. These two resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon with no need for "Land for Peace" formula. We also call on the UN, the U.S, France, Canada, Britain and other European and Arab countries to help us implement UN resolution 520 that calls for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon: Syrians, Israelis, Kurds, Palestinians, Iranians etc.

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Article:	Syria’s indefinite presence in Lebanon
Author:	Elias Y. Bejjani -- e-mail: ebejjani@freelebanon.org
Date:	January 2000