BEIRUT/DAMASCUS, 1 December 2004 — Thousands of Lebanese marched through Beirut yesterday in a protest encouraged by the government and the Hezbollah against a UN resolution calling on Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon.

Roads were closed and posters of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad put up around Beirut ahead of the protest, dubbed the “March of a million” by organizers and expected to draw tens of thousands of people.

The demonstration was organized after an unauthorized march led by opposition groups earlier this month, in which hundreds of mainly Christian students called for an end to Syrian interference in its small neighbor.

Syria has roughly 14,000 troops in Lebanon and a major say in Beirut politics. Opposition to Damascus’ role in Lebanon has become more vocal in recent months, encouraged by a UN Security Council resolution instructing Syria to pull out.

The US- and French-backed resolution in early September aimed to head off the extension of the pro-Syrian Lahoud’s term through a widely opposed constitutional amendment that was passed regardless shortly afterwards.

Lahoud and the government say Syrian involvement in Lebanon is an internal Lebanese matter. Damascus too says UN resolution 1559 was prompted by a US desire to put pressure on Syria, not out of concern for Lebanese sovereignty.

“We want Syria to stay, we are nothing without Syria,” said Ghiwa Ghiyah, a 17-year-old student.

“The United States, France or the United Nations have no right to come and interfere in internal Lebanese affairs,” said Ahmed Barini, a 23-year-student bussed in from north Lebanon for the march. “The issue of the Syrian presence is between Syria and Lebanon.”

Syrian-backed Hezbollah, which has strong support in Lebanon for fighting Israel, joined other pro-Syrian groups in urging followers to turn out for the protest, running appeals to join in on the Al-Manar television channel it runs.

Meanwhile, Syrian Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Hussein asked Washington to scrap its threat of sanctions against Commercial Bank of Syria over charges of financing terrorism, the ruling Baath party’s daily reported yesterday.

Baath said the request was made in a meeting with a US Treasury Department delegation on the sidelines of a meeting in Bahrain on launching a Middle East agency to fight money-laundering and terror financing.

“We asked the US delegation for official guarantees on the annulment, not just a suspension, of the sanctions that were planned” against the state-owned bank, the finance minister told the newspaper.

Syrian and US officials opened talks in September to try to resolve the sanctions threat.

Washington has raised concerns over the alleged involvement of the Syrian bank in money-laundering operations and the financing of terrorism, threatening sanctions under the Patriot Act passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Syria has been under US economic sanctions since May on charges of supporting terrorism and working to destabilize Iraq.

In another development, Syria’s Cabinet approved yesterday a draft law merging two state-run newspapers and a press institution into a single entity, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.

SANA said the Cabinet approved the merger of Tishrin and Al-Thawra newspapers and the General Institution for Distributing Printed Materials into the Al-Wahda Institution for Press, Printing and Publishing.

Last week, a ministerial committee approved a draft decree merging the three entities that would have been known as the Ugarit Institution for Press, Printing and Publishing, but it seems Al-Wahda, which prints Al-Thawra newspaper, was the preferred institution.

SANA said the newly-created institution will have the task of printing newspapers, magazines and other printed materials, conducting research and distributing all local, Arab and foreign newspapers and printed materials.

The merger aims at “benefiting from human potentials and press equipment and reducing the costs of production”, the report said.

The draft bill must eventually be endorsed by Bashar to take effect.