DAMASCUS, 10 October 2004 — Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose country is under fire at the United Nations over its troop presence in Lebanon, yesterday rejected charges that Damascus was seeking to dominate its smaller neighbor. “Certain forces speak of Syrian domination of Lebanon. We have no interest in such domination,” Bashar said.
Speaking at a conference of Syrian expatriates in Damascus, Bashar said Lebanon had no natural resources or wealth that would constitute an assumed goal for Syria to dominate it, and questioned the motives behind Security Council Resolution 1559.
“Had we wanted to dominate (Lebanon), why did we redeploy our forces in stages over about five years... We did not take anything from Lebanon. We gave blood,” he added.
A UN Security Council Resolution adopted last month called for the complete pullout of foreign forces from Lebanon and respect for its sovereignty, in a clear reference to Syria.
Syria, which remains under the grip of five-month-old US economic sanctions over accusations of terrorism and helping the insurgency in Iraq, is the powerbroker in Lebanon where it maintains some 15,000 troops.
“We did not ask for any wealth, oil or electricity (from Lebanon),” Bashar said at the opening of a congress for Syrian emigrants. “If we wanted to impose our hegemony, then why did we stage redeployments of our forces over the last five years,” he said, referring to limited pullbacks that have halved the number of Syrian troops in Lebanon since the end of the civil war.
Last month, Syria withdrew 3,000 soldiers but calls have been mounting for the pullout of all the remaining forces that both Damascus and Beirut say are deployed for security reasons at Lebanon’s request. Syria first sent in troops to Lebanon in 1976, a year after the outbreak of the 15-year civil war.
Bashar said some parties, in an apparent reference to the United States which co-sponsored last month’s resolution along with France, spoke of Syria’s “blatant interference in Lebanese affairs.”
“What did these forces which have been expressing their attachment to Lebanon do for this country?” he said. “Where were these forces at the start of the war when some Lebanese were being massacred in the name of socialism, justice and reform of the political regime (in Lebanon)?”
“Where were they ... in 1982 when thousands of Lebanese were killed and when Syria lost thousands” he said, referring to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. “Their (the US) attachment to Lebanon and its democracy suddenly appeared.”
The UN resolution was triggered by international concern over a Syrian-inspired amendment to the Lebanese constitution that extended the term of President Emile Lahoud, a Damascus protege. “How can they speak of the violation of the constitution when constitutions are amended around the world. These forces do not know the most elementary principles of the law,” he said.
On Oct. 1, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented a report on Resolution 1559 to the Security Council in which he said Syria has not complied with the demand for a troop pullout from Lebanon. Annan also said he had been able to obtain no timetable for the withdrawal of the remaining Syrian troops in Lebanon.
Bashar denied Syria had pressured Lebanon’s Parliament to extend President Emile Lahoud’s term by three years, and said the UN resolution itself amounted to interference in Beirut’s internal affairs. Syria sent troops to Lebanon at Beirut’s request in 1976, a year after the start of Lebanon’s civil war, and remains the main power broker in Lebanese politics.
