Lebanonwire.com | US welcomes resignation of pro-Syrian Lebanese government

Top Banner

February 28, 2005

US welcomes resignation of pro-Syrian Lebanese government

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (AFP) - US officials Monday hailed the resignation of Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister as the result of a "cedar revolution" they said should produce elections and a truly representative government.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan also repeated a US call for Syrian troops to leave Lebanon.

"We are closely watching developments with great interest," McClellan told reporters after word came through that Prime Minister Omar Karameh had stepped down in the face of mass protests.

"The resignation of the Karameh government represents an opportunity for the Lebanese people to have a new government which is truly representative of their country's diversity," he said.

"The new government will have the responsibility to implement free and fair elections that the Lebanese people have clearly demonstrated they desire," McClellan added.

"The process of (forming) a new government should proceed in accordance with the Lebanese constitution and should be free of all foreign interference," the White House spokesman said.

"It is time for Syria to fully comply with United Nations Security Council resolution 1559 that means that Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel leave the country," he said. "That will help to ensure that elections are free and fair."

McClellan said the recent developments in Lebanon, which follow the assassination two weeks ago of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, were in line with US President George W. Bush's desire to promote greater democracy in the Middle East.

"The president has often spoken about how all people desire to live in freedom," he said. "I think you're seeing today in Lebanon that the Lebanese people are clearly demonstrating their desire to have a free and independent future, free from outside interference.

"And we continue to see the Lebanese people standing up and speaking out for their desire to live in freedom," McClellan said.

State Department officials started Monday calling the spate of Lebanese protests since Hariri's murder "the cedar revolution," after the country's biblical tree, and comparing it with the movements in Ukraine and Georgia.

"It means that for the past weeks we've seen the people of Lebanon fill the streets of Beirut, fill the streets of other cities in Lebanon, calling for their country back," said deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.

"We, the international community, share the Lebanese people's desire for the extension of Lebanese sovereignty over all of Lebanon's territory, and the disarming of militias, and the conduct of elections ... that are free, fair, transparent."

McClellan said the United States had cooperated closely with France on Lebanon. "We both are committed to seeing Security Council resolutions complied with," he said.

"We are both committed to seeing Lebanon be sovereign, independent and free from outside interference. We are fully committed to supporting free and fair elections that would be free from outside interference," he said. "And it's an issue that I expect we will continue to stay in close contact with our French counterparts on."

Bush and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac issued a joint call during their meeting in Brussels last week for an immediate pullout of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

McClellan also announced that Bush would meet at the White House on March 16 with Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, patriarch of the powerful Maronite Catholic church and a leader of opposition to Syrian occupation.

He said the cardinal is "respected throughout Lebanon and around the world for his religious leadership and for promoting intracommunal harmony among the different faiths in his country.

"He is an important voice for Lebanese independence, freedom and democracy," the White House spokesman said.