← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Oklahomaman
Thread ID: 17059 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2005-03-02
2005-03-02 13:45 | User Profile
Prelude to War for Israel III? Looks like the Neocons are offering Syria as the next sacrificial lamb. If this is true, they must be very afraid of Iran and her nuclear wild card being played over the skies of Tel-Aviv. If you are an Arab/Islamic government and not doing everything possible to lay your hands on nukes, you are too stupid for words.
LONDON - The Bush administration is applying its strongest pressure to date on Syria, insisting on an immediate withdrawal from neighboring Lebanon and blaming terrorists based in Syria for last week's deadly suicide attack in Israel.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Syria is "out of step" with growing desire for democracy in the Middle East. International resolve is firm that Syria must no longer hold political and military control over its smaller neighbor, Rice said Tuesday.
Rice was in London for an international conference on Palestinian security and government reform, which the Bush administration has called a building block for wider democratic change in the region.
While there, Rice also met briefly with Canada's foreign minister and "explained her disappointment" over Canada's refusal to join a U.S.-led anti-ballistic missile shield program, an administration official said Tuesday.
She was returning to Washington on Wednesday.
Rice has put off a planned April visit to Ottawa amid U.S. displeasure over the Canadian decision. The administration said Rice wants to reschedule quickly, but no new date has been set.
In Washington, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Syria was home base for the terrorist attack in Israel that rocked the latest efforts for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We do have firm evidence that the bombing in Tel Aviv was not only authorized by Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus, but that Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus participated in the planning," the spokesman said.
President Bush made a similar point during a White House meeting with congressional leaders, participants said, and so did Rice while in London.
All key Lebanese political decisions are assumed to have a stamp of approval from the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Huge street demonstrations and Monday's resignation of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government marked the most serious challenge to Syrian authority in Lebanon since the end of the civil war that killed 150,000 and crushed the Lebanese economy in the 1970s and 1980s.
The events also were an opening for the Bush administration to press its wider goal of democracy across the Middle East and to throw a spotlight on what the United States contends is long-standing Syrian support for terrorists who are trying to undermine progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Rice said the Lebanese must be allowed to choose their own political future in elections this spring. That choice must be independent of "contaminating influences," she said, underscoring a joint U.S.-French statement on Tuesday and a United Nations resolution last fall.
"I think it's one of the strongest statements in a long time about what needs to happen in Lebanon," Rice said.
At a news conference with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, Rice said their two countries would support the scheduled election in Lebanon, perhaps by sending observers and monitors.
She also suggested international peacekeepers might be needed eventually and could help secure democracy for the Lebanese if Syria were to withdraw.
"As we see how the Lebanese will move forward I think we have to look at what can be done in terms of helping them to stabilize the situation, should that become necessary," Rice said.
She gave no details, and later said it was too soon to talk about the specifics of security in Lebanon after a hypothetical Syrian exit.
Syrian President Bashar Assad indicated in an interview with Time magazine that he would withdraw Syria's 15,000 troops from Lebanon "maybe in the next few months." Later, however, a Syrian official speaking on condition of anonymity in Damascus questioned whether it could occur within months.
The United States pulled its ambassador from Damascus last month in protest over the assassination of a leading Lebanese politician. The Bush administration did not blame Syria outright for Rafik Hariri's killing, and Syria has denied any involvement. The bombing that killed him in Beirut on Feb. 14 set off a popular uprising against Syria and a series of apparent concessions from Damascus.
2005-03-02 13:56 | User Profile
Perhaps Syria was behind the attempted judge-slaying, and Matt Hale was behind the Lebanese bombing? :wink:
Seriously, though something is going to happen with either Syria or Iran. It is simply a question of which.