WASHINGTON, 11 June 2005 — US President George W. Bush gave Syria a fresh warning yesterday, calling on Damascus to pull its intelligence services out of Lebanon.
Bush said he was “disturbed” by reports of Syrian intelligence personnel 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.”
Earlier, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the White House was “deeply concerned about Syria’s interference and intimidation inside Lebanon.
“Syria needs to comply fully with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559. That means getting all their intelligence operatives out of Lebanon,” he added. “We are concerned that those intelligence operatives are interfering in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
“We have all called on the United Nations to send the verification teams back to Lebanon,” McClellan said, noting that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was “looking at this course of action.”
The United Nations later said Annan is sending a UN team back to Lebanon to check reports that Syrian intelligence officials may still be operating in the country. spokesman Fred Eckhard said no date had been set yet for the team’s trip.
A senior Bush administration official said the administration had received what it believed to be credible information that Syria had drawn up a hit list targeting prominent Lebanese political leaders for assassination. “We have received information from a variety of credible Lebanese sources that the Syrian government has developed a list targeting senior Lebanese political figures in an attempt to intimidate the Lebanese people,” the official said.
Syria’s UN ambassador called the US accusations “a smear campaign” and insisted that all Syrian intelligence operatives have been withdrawn from the country.
In comments clearly aimed at the Bush administration, Fayssal Mekdad said the “smear campaign” reflects displeasure at the results of recent elections in Lebanon and is an attempt “to deepen differences between different Lebanese forces, and to create problems for a constructive relationship between Syria and Lebanon.”
