DAMASCUS, 8 September 2004 — Damascus has accused the United States of interfering in the affairs of Lebanon and Syria, saying Washington had brought undue pressure to force a UN resolution last week on foreign influence in Lebanon. In comments reported by state media yesterday, Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani accused Washington of “political escalation to interfere in the internal affairs of Syria and Lebanon under frail pretexts”.
Turkmani, whose country has around 17,000 troops in Lebanon, slammed Washington’s role in pushing through last week’s UN resolution that called for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon. The resolution also warned against foreign interference in Lebanon’s presidential elections.
Turkmani said it was a US attempt to “confiscate” the authority of the Lebanese people and Parliament “as if the United States is more keen than the Lebanese on their country and interests”.
Defying the UN, Lebanon’s Parliament voted last Friday to extend the term of Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud by three years, a move Washington says was orchestrated by Damascus.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara said his country’s ties with Lebanon would grow even stronger after the resolution. “Syria and Lebanon ... will witness ... more openness toward each other and more improvement in relations,” he told a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Lavrov said Moscow, which did not back or veto the UN move, wanted a comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict that would help solve the issues tackled by the resolution. Traditionally tense ties between Syria and the United States have been further strained since the US-led war in Iraq.
Turkmani suggested a link between the US “intervention” attempts and Israeli threats to strike targets in Syria for alleged complicity in bus bombings that killed 16 people in southern Israel last Tuesday. “These threats coincided with US political escalation,” he said of the warnings that have raised the specter of an air raid similar to the one carried out deep inside Syria last October.
Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry told the permanent members of the Security Council yesterday the resolution “exposed Lebanon to serious dangers”. In a letter to members, the ministry said: “The Lebanese-Syrian alliance, in political, security and military fields, contributes to creating a certain balance in the face of pressures, violations and daily risks resulting from the policy of seeking to legitimize the Israeli occupation.”
In another development, United Nations special envoy Terje-Roed Larsen said Syria was seriously interested in resuming peace talks with Israel and urged both sides to explore ways to return to the negotiating table. Larsen said he believed the Syrians were extending Israel “an outstretched hand that should be taken” to revive peace talks frozen since 2000.
Other diplomats said Syrian President Bashar Assad told Larsen a few months ago he was ready to resume talks with Israel and that the offer remained.
“I have on several occasions this year been able to talk to President Assad and other Syrian officials about a possible resumption of peace talks with Israel,” Larsen told Reuters in an interview.
“Based on these talks ... I do believe there is a genuine interest in Syria to go back to the table in order to find a solution to the conflict with Israel,” he said. Bashar has called for resumption of talks from the point they were suspended in 2000, but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to start again from scratch. “What I would urge both parties to do is to start exploring if there’s a possibility ... to go back to the table. I think this is vital, necessary, crucial at this point in time when the region is in such turmoil,” he said. “That would also calm other conflicts in the region.”
