حزب الإصلاح السوري

Syria's Involvement in Palestinian Affairs will Spell Trouble for Peace

Washington DC, December 6, 2004 /RPS News/ - Thawed relationships between Assad of Syria and the

 Palestinian leadership represented by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) and the Palestine Liberation Organization chief Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is bound to cause problems for the peace process.

Both Palestinian leaders are visiting Syria today.

The Palestinians are looking for Egypt and Syria to stabilize a process that they fear may not grant the Palestinian every wish given the support of the United States to Israel. Syria, on the other hand, which considers some of the Palestinian territories as part of the Greater Syria, will use the Palestinians as a trump card to leverage against Israel and the United States for its own interest.

Some Analysts believe that Syria, may torpedo the peace if allowed to interfere. They say that the democratization process that the Palestinians are looking for is not in the best interests of Syria who will find herself surrounded by democracies.

Others claim that Syria may use that visit as an excuse to severe ties with radical Palestinian organizations citing demands by the PA and the PLO rather than the mounting international pressure against al-Assad.

Syria's murderous role

Washington DC, December 6, 2004 /Washington Times Op-Ed - By Richard Carlson, Barbara Newman and William Cowan/ -- A factor complicating the coalition mission of bringing stability to Iraq is the covert role played by Syria in financing and supporting the present insurgency, and the ineffectual attempts by the United States to counter it or even publicly acknowledge it.

A number of current and former U.S. intelligence officers experienced in counter-terrorism who were interviewed by the authors believe that Syria should have been long ago included on Washington's "axis of evil" list although it is still not. But the State Department, acknowledging recent publicly cooperative gestures from Syrian President Bashar Assad (a British-trained eye doctor who "inherited" the presidency and the leadership of the Ba'ath Party from his bloodthirsty deceased father, President Hafez Assad) considers Syria a "partner" in the war on terror. This, in spite of a documented list of Syrian perfidy against the United States that begins with the bombings of the American Embassy and the Marine compound in Beirut in 1983 that killed more than 240 young Marines and sailors. There was no punishment for those murders then or since, even though the bomb-making materials passed through Damascus on their way to Beirut, and Syrian intelligence assisted in the fabrication of the device and in the attacks' operational planning.    

The Syrians went on to shoot down two U.S. Navy jets in 1983, again without the slightest response on the part of the United States. By 1985, as Hezbollah began to morph from various radical elements in Lebanon into a full-fledged terrorist organization, Syria provided access for the movement of men, supplies and materials to move freely through Damascus on their way to and from terrorist centers and camps in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and Tehran.

When Pan Am 103 was downed over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, the world soon focused on Libyan intelligence as the culprit. And it was. But the planning for the operation had been conducted in Damascus under the watchful eye of Syrian intelligence.

When the Khobar Towers were bombed in Saudi Arabia in 1996, at a cost of 19 U.S. servicemen's lives, it was Syria which had been nurturing Hezbollah with cash and secret bases.

Yet last year, after a meeting in Damascus with Mr. Assad, Secretary of State Colin Powell held a news conference in Washington to tell the American public he had received assurances that Syria would crack down on terrorists and evict the many terrorist organizations headquartered in Damascus. To date, no terrorist groups have left, and there are no visible signs that Syria has cracked down on anyone.

In the earliest stages of the ground war in Iraq, U.S. forces engaged uniformed Syrians near Baghdad, killing more than 100 of them. Current intelligence reports on battlefield kills, captures and interrogations, show that hundreds of Syrians are fighting alongside insurgents in the Sunni Triangle.

In October of this year, U.S. intelligence sources identified three relatives of Saddam Hussein, who had fled to Syria and were funneling millions of dollars to the Iraqi insurgents through middlemen and front companies.

U.S. intelligence sources have told the authors that Syrian intelligence officials have identified targets for the insurgency, provided its members with logistical support and helped plan operations against coalition forces.

Syrian intelligence officials have allegedly shown visitors a video of the beheading of two American soldiers who were captured in Iraq, possibly in fighting near the airport in the early days of the invasion. They were allegedly beheaded by Syrian fighters working with the Iraqi insurgents. The U.S. government disclaims any knowledge of this, but two sources who say they have seen the video described it in detail to one of the authors. In a meeting with Syrian intelligence officers in which the tape was supposedly shown, said the source, a Syrian official mocked the executions by saying "this is what we do to Americans.”President Bush's insistence on not compromising with terrorists has been endorsed by a majority of the citizens of the United States and by the leaders of our global allies. The president's goals in Iraq, and elsewhere in the region, will not be achieved until the Syrians are forced to halt all assistance to our enemies. To win the ground war in Iraq and the larger war on terrorism, we must stop more than two decades of Syrian complicity with terrorists. Failure at this point is not an option.
    
William Cowan is a retired U.S. Marine colonel and counterinsurgency and terrorism expert. Barbara Newman is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Richard Carlson ran the Voice of America during the last years of the Cold War and is vice chairman of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

Paris engages Lebanese opposition on 1559 Jumblatt meets Chirac in Paris, has reservations on aspects of resolution

Washington DC, December 4, 2004 /Nada Raad - Daily Star/ - Three months after the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, France has initiated a series of new diplomatic contacts by inviting two main opposition members to discuss the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

On Friday, French President Jacques Chirac met with Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt to whom he reiterated his country's desire to see the "full implementation of 1559." In the next weeks, the French president might also meet with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, a main opponent of the Syrian presence in Lebanon. "We sent an invitation to the Maronite Patriarch to meet with Chirac, but no date was scheduled," the official French presidential spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said Friday.

Sources close to the patriarch said a possible visit would be made around Dec. 16.

Meanwhile, the Elysee Palace denied a scheduled meeting might occur between Chirac and exiled General Michel Aoun, who is among the principal callers for a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, where Damascus still maintains an estimated 14,000 troops.

Both Sfeir and Jumblatt want to restore Lebanese-Syrian relations by seeing a complete implementation of the 1989 Taif Accord.

"The Syrians should know that an independent, sovereign and democratic Lebanon would serve their interest. This is a challenge we will raise by relying on France," Jumblatt said.

Jumblatt stayed for 40 minutes with Chirac, who then praised the Chouf MP for protecting Lebanon's sovereignty. However, Jumblatt has some reservations on the implementation of 1559, particularly concerning the disarmament of Hizbullah.

"I will discuss with French officials how to implement 1559's main objective," said Jumblatt, also the president of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP).

Jumblatt's visit to the French capital was considered by some political figures as historic and as bringing him merit on the regional, domestic and international levels. However, some said Jumblatt would avoid taking positions that could place him in opposition with Syria.

"Jumblatt is happy about Chirac's invitation (...) however he would be cautious before supporting any French policy to implement 1559, and about positions that could place him in confrontation with Syria," former minister Issam Naaman said Friday.

Naaman, Jumblatt's rival, said the motives behind the French invitation come as part of its policy to secure support from Jumblatt for the mechanism it will offer to the UN Security Council for implementing 1559. Even a member of Jumblatt's Democratic Gathering said Friday that despite the MP's "historic visit to France," Jumblatt refuses any foreign intervention in Lebanese affairs.

"Jumblatt is against the internationalization of the Lebanese crisis but the gathering wants domestic Lebanese dialogue and Lebanese-Syrian talks to solve all internal issues," Chouf MP Alaeddine Tirro said.

Meanwhile, Jumblatt was not scheduled to meet with exiled Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) president Michel Aoun.

In a telephone interview with The Daily Star, Aoun said that no meeting with Jumblatt was yet scheduled, but if the MP asks to see him, he would definitely welcome the initiative.

"Jumblatt's official visit to France is very busy. However, if he decided to extend his stay and have more free time, I might even ask to meet him," Aoun said.

The exiled general said the PSP and the FPM might cooperate during the coming parliamentary elections of 2005.

"We have close positions and we should dialogue more," he said.

In separate developments, the United States continued pressuring Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, saying that such a demand is not linked to other issues in the Middle East. Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday that decreasing the pressures on Syria to implement 1559 in light of the compromises Damascus might offer on the Iraqi and Palestinian levels was inaccurate.

"The withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon is a case by itself that is not related to other issues," Powell said during an interview with radio Sawa.

Powell reiterated the U.S. calls for Syria to implement the resolution, saying this demand was discussed with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa during the Sharm el-Sheikh meetings last week.

"We didn't have a full discussion but I just reminded him (Sharaa) that this resolution reflected the will of the international community and that Syria should take it into consideration," he said.

 Reform Party of Syria