Lebanonwire.com | US "certain" Syrian agents still in Lebanon

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June 23, 2005

US "certain" Syrian agents still in Lebanon
by Peter Mackler

LONDON - The United States stepped up pressure Thursday on Syria, with a senior official saying Washington was "certain" Damascus still had intelligence agents in Lebanon to destabilize the country.

He made his remarks after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held talks on Lebanon with her new French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy, who urged the world community to take a tough line with Syria.

Rice, speaking at a Group of Eight foreign ministers' meeting, also bluntly called on Damascus to end its support for insurgents that Washington says are crossing the border into Iraq to launch murderous attacks.

"This is a government that can take action on its border to prevent this cross-border activities that are really contributing dramatically to insecurity in Iraq," Rice told a closing news conference.

"If they're prepared to do it, they should just do it."

Earlier, the senior US official, who asked not to be named, said the US administration was deeply concerned about the situation in Lebanon after the assassination of two prominent anti-Syrian figures this month.

Syria withdrew its last troops from Lebanon in April to end a 29-year presence. But the official said "there's no question that Syrian military intelligence agents have stayed behind and they are exerting a highly negative influence."

Washington had previously said it had only suspicions that Syrian intelligence agents had remained in Lebanon after the military pullout.

But the senior State Department official said Thursday "we are certain of it" without giving evidence or details.

He said no other country had disputed the US contention that Syrian agents were still operating in Lebanon. But the United Nations -- which has sent a verification team to the country -- has left the question open.

Rice and Douste-Blazy spoke at length about Lebanon at the US ambassador's residence in London ahead of the meeting of foreign ministers from the G8 group of leading industrialised nations.

Both reiterated a call for Syria to respect UN Security Council Resolution 1559 which their countries sponsored last year, calling for a full withdrawal of all Syrian forces and an end to interference in Lebanon.

"We expressed concern about the assassinations that have been going on in Lebanon, about the need for Syria to make certain that all of its forces are withdrawn from Lebanon," Rice said.

Douste-Blazy said attacks on civilians would no longer be tolerated and "we therefore a tough line towards Syria is in order." He did not elaborate.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain expected Syria -- "which continues to exercise a great deal of influence within Lebanon" -- to intervene to put a halt to political killings.

"We look to the Syrian government to do all that it can to ensure that those who are committed these outrageous assassinations stop and finish," Straw, who was chairing Thursday's G8 meeting, told reporters.

The United States, backed by France and other countries, has intensified its rhetoric against Damascus since the February 14 death of former Lebanese prime minister, a critic of Syria whose car was blown up in Beirut.

The Americans also accuse Damascus of backing Islamic militants opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and of allowing insurgents to use its territory to mount attacks in Iraq.

But President George W. Bush's administration, which recalled its ambassador to Syria in February, has kept a close eye on Lebanon following its first free parliamentary polls in three decades.

US officials have not directly attributed blame for the assassinations but called them an attempt to intimidate Lebanese as the country moves ahead to form a new government.

The White House has angrily linked Tuesday's killing of former communist party leader George Hawi to Syria's "long and continued presence" in Lebanon and demanded a formal investigation.

Rice, on a swing through the Middle East before stopping in Brussels for an Iraq conference and in London for the G-8 session, was even blunter in her message this week to Damascus: "Knock it off."