Lebanonwire, March 31, 2003

The Daily Star

Elie Hourani
Daily Star staff

Prime Minister Rafik Hariri held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Sunday, as Lebanese politicians condemned the strong warning against Syria by a senior US official.
Assad and Hariri discussed the results of the premier’s trip last week to Europe, where he met with leaders in France, Belgium, Russia and Greece, as well as “developments in the war against Iraq, Lebanese-Syrian ties and the importance of continuing coordination in positions in this regard,” according to official sources.
The official Syrian press has criticized US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s accusations that Syria was providing Iraq with military equipment, and that Iran was allowing fighters to enter Iraq from its territory.
However, neither Hariri nor Assad, who held a separate meeting on Sunday with Health Minister Suleiman Franjieh, commented on Rumsfeld’s statements, made late Friday.
The defense secretary’s statements drew condemnation from various Lebanese groups and politicians, who said the threats were a cover for military failure in the war.
Speaker Nabih Berri on Saturday cautioned the United States against launching any attack on Syria and said Israel was behind Rumsfeld’s threats.
In a statement, he said that the United States was accusing Syria of smuggling military equipment across its borders to Iraq, while prior to that, there were reports that the Syria Accountability Act would be revived. Congressmen last year presented a bill that accused Syria of supporting terrorism and demanded that it withdraw from Lebanon, but the White House publicly opposed the legislation.
“In reality, the real smuggling is taking place from Israel to the United States, either by way of ideas, which got the United States deeply involved in Iraq, or through Israeli-made arms and rockets, which fall every day on the heads of Iraqis,” Berri said.
He called on the United States to wake up to what international Zionism was getting America involved in.
“The South is the South, irrespective of whether it is in South Lebanon or in Iraq. In both Souths, it was Israel which planned the offensive. As for the warning to Iran, it is another plan for moving the Americans from one hell to another,” Berri said. He added that any attack on Israel would “turn the entire Arab nation into a new South.”
Former Prime Minister Salim Hoss on Saturday condemned the US-led assault on Iraq and said the only remaining superpower “has nothing left, except threatening Syria and Iran.”
Labor Minister Ali Qanso on Sunday condemned Rumsfeld’s anti-Syrian and anti-Iranian remarks.
“Any attack against Syria will set the entire Arab area, from the (Atlantic) ocean to the Gulf, on fire against the United States, its interests and against this US administration,” the minister said during a news conference in his home village of Dweir.
Former Post and Telecommunications Minister Issam Naaman also condemned Rumsfeld’s remarks.
“What Rumsfeld wants is to close down the Damascus-Baghdad road, to prevent the flow of volunteers ready to take part in resistance against US aggression,” Naaman said in a statement Saturday.
He urged Iran to follow Syria’s example, as it was able to overcome its disputes with Iraq.
He said that the only response to Rumsfeld’s remarks was to speed up the implementation of the Strategic Syria-Iran Treaty.
Zahle MP Mohsen Dalloul on Saturday said that Rumsfeld’s remarks showed how “politically bankrupt the United States has become as a result of its aggression against Iraq and its people.”
During a tour of the Marjayoun area, Marjayoun MP Qassem Hashem accused Rumsfeld of failing in his military offensive against Iraq.
“His military failure has prompted him to aim his accusations left and right to Syria,” the MP said.
Beirut MP Adnan Araqji on Saturday also condemned Rumsfeld’s remarks.
“As television networks were broadcasting footage of massacres of women and children, US secretary of war  Donald Rumsfeld was making threats against Syria and Iran.”
He predicted “more bloodbaths in the genocidal war led by the United States against the people of Iraq.”
Tripoli MP Jean Obeid accused Rumsfeld of going from bad to worse.  He claimed that making accusations against Syria “is the first sign that the US administration has miscalculated in this aggression against Iraq.”
Phalange Party president Karim Pakradouni on Sunday accused Rumsfeld of basing his
claims about Syrian help to Iraq on Israeli reports.
Speaking on LBCI Television, he said Rumsfeld’s accusations were based on reports by Zeev Schiff, military analyst for the Israeli daily Haaretz.
Pakradouni also summarized the reasons for Rumsfeld’s accusations against Syria: “Turning attention away from the internal fight currently taking place at the Pentagon and increasing the pressure, to halt Syria’s support to Iraq and forcing other Arab and European countries to support the war.”
Bint Jbeil MP Ali Bazzi said Saturday that Rumsfeld’s remarks were prompted by his military failure in Iraq.
Speaking at a memorial service in the southern village of Sarafand, Bazzi said Rumsfeld’s remarks illustrated “the deep crisis the US administration has got itself involved in at the request of the US-based Zionist lobby. The accusations were a clear cover-up for the joint British and American failure to achieve the minimum aggressive objectives in their war against Iraq.”
Western Bekaa-Rashaya MP Faisal Daoud said that Syria will “continue to stand up to its enemies no matter how strong they are.”
Tyre MP Ali Khreis said that the American accusations leveled against Syria and Iran were those of “the politically bankrupt, who are trying to win fictitious wars of words, after being defeated by the Iraqi people’s resistance.”

Copyright©Daily Star