DAMASCUS, 8 February 2005 — A UN resolution calling on Syria to withdraw its troops from neighboring Lebanon has contributed to tension, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara told a visiting UN special envoy yesterday.
Syria’s official news agency said Shara and UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen had “reviewed the negative impact” of UN Security Council resolution 1559 on the situation in Lebanon.
Roed-Larsen was sent to review progress on the resolution.
Lebanese groups opposed to the presence of Syria’s 14,000 troops and Syria’s political grip on their country have seized on the resolution, and their criticism has grown louder with the approach of Lebanese elections in May.
The Syrian agency said Shara “expressed regret that some international resolutions became reasons of tension instead of being factors for preserving and enhancing international peace and security”.
Roed-Larsen declined comment. It was not immediately clear if President Bashar Assad would receive Roed-Larsen before he leaves for Lebanon.
Shara called on the international community to “avoid being selective in implementing international resolutions”.
Syria often complains the world community has failed to oblige arch-foe Israel to quit occupied Arab land, a requirement of several UN Security Council resolutions.
Earlier this month Syria signaled a change in its approach toward Lebanon by sending a Foreign Ministry official to open dialogue with Lebanese politicians, including those opposed to its grip on its smaller neighbor.
In recent months Damascus redeployed some of its forces in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa near the border area.
Syria to Buy Apples From
Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights
In an unprecedented move, Syria announced yesterday it is to buy apples from the Arab farmers of the Golan Heights — the first time it has traded with Israeli occupied territory.
Syria is one of the Arab world’s strongest opponents of Israel, which captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the plateau in 1981.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “Due to the harsh economic conditions which our brothers in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights are suffering from, and in an effort to meet their repeated demands that we buy some of their accumulated apple produce, we have decided to buy 10,000 tons of their apples.”
In explaining the decision, the ministry said the fruit is “Syrian, grown on Syrian land and owned by Syrians.” The objective is “to meet the pressing demands of Syrian citizens languishing under occupation and to help alleviate their suffering.”
The ministry said the apples would enter Syria through the Quneitra checkpoint on the Golan border, some 65 km southwest of Damascus, under the supervision of the United Nations Disengagement and Observer Forces, which has made the necessary contacts.
The purchase will be the first economic exchange between Syria and the residents of the Golan Heights since Israel captured the plateau. The statement indicated this deal was a one time affair.
Hamed Al-Halabi, a Syrian teacher originally from the Golan, said in Damascus yesterday that the annual apple production in the heights is between 30,000 and 40,000 tons.
The apples are sold mainly to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank with a small proportion going to the Israeli market, he said.
