Lebanonwire.com | Syrian agents still in Lebanon, opposition and US warn

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June 10, 2005

Syrian agents still in Lebanon, opposition and US warn
by Sophie Claudet

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syrian intelligence agents remain in Lebanon despite assurances they have left, and more political murders can be expected, a key opposition figure said in an accusation swiftly taken up by Washington Friday.

"I believe the entire opposition is being targeted," said Druze leader Walid Jumblatt in a television interview late Thursday night, repeating an accusation he has often made since the murder in February of former premier Rafiq Hariri.

"The assassinations will continue with or without the knowledge of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad," he charged.

Jumblatt was speaking only a week after the latest political killing -- the death of prominent anti-Syrian journalist Samir Kassir -- and his comments were swiftly echoed by US officials, including President George W. Bush.

Bush said he was "disturbed" by reports of Syrian intelligence personnel still in Lebanon.

"Our message to Syria -- and it's not just the message of the United States; the United Nations has said the same thing -- is that in order for Lebanon to be free," Syria needs to "not only remove their military, but to remove intelligence officers as well."

Bush's spokesman Scott McClellan went further, telling reporters: "We are deeply concerned about Syria's interference and intimidation inside Lebanon."

An unidentified senior official had told Friday's New York Times that Syria even had a "hit list" of opponents in Lebanon.

But the new chorus of accusations drew a strong denial from Damascus which has consistently rejected charges that it had a hand in the killings of either Hariri and Kassir, or in a series of bombings since Hariri's death that have killed three others.

Information Minister Mehdi Dakhlallah said the accusations levelled by Bush and other administration officials were "false and lacking in objectivity".

"All Syrian forces, whatever their service, have been withdrawn from Lebanon," in accordance with Resolution 1559 passed by the UN Security Council last September, the minister told the official SANA news agency.

"Syria has always worked with Lebanon in a transparent way without any covert action," he said, adding that the new US accusations were a reflection of the administration's "disappointment" that April's pullout had deprived them of a stick to beat Damascus with.

The new war of words came as Lebanon prepares to hold the third phase of four-stage parliamentary elections on Sunday, this time in the largely Christian and Druze region of Mount Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

In his remarks, Jumblatt accused the former Syrian military intelligence chief in Lebanon, General Rustom Ghazaleh, of meddling in the election through his agents.

"Rustom Ghazaleh, whom the Syrian leadership should have thrown in jail, has blocked an electoral alliance between (Christian) MP Elie Skaff and the Hariri group," he said, referring to the opposition coalition led by the slain former premier's son, Saad.

Contacted by AFP, Skaff denied he had met Ghazaleh since Syria's troop withdrawal from Lebanon in late April.

But several people told AFP they had seen Syrian officers in the Bekaa Valley and in northern Lebanon.

"These officers, some of whom have obtained Lebanese citizenship, were talking local mayors into voting and pushing the population to vote for candidates close to Damascus," said one pro-Hariri politician who asked not to be identified.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan raised the possibility Thursday that Syrian intelligence personnel might not have completely withdrawn as required by Resolution 1559.

"We are now receiving reports that there may be elements that are still there, and we are considering the possible return of the verification team to ascertain what is going on," he said.

A UN verification mission had reported on May 23 that Syria had "fully" withdrawn from its neighbour, in compliance with last year's resolution.