Ain-Al-Yaqeen - October 14, 2005

		October 14, 2005

PRIME MINISTER FOUAD SANIOURA STRESSES THAT THE LEBANESE TERRITORIES ARE NOT FOR SALE AND THAT LEBANON WILL BE THE LAST ARAB COUNTRY TO AGREE TO PEACE WITH ISRAEL.
SHEIKH SAAD AL-HARIRI SPEAKS ABOUT A PLOT TO ASSASSINATE HIM AND CONSIDERS THAT PRESIDENT EMILE LAHOUD, HAS "NO LEGITIMACY."
PALESTINIANS IN LEBANON REITERATE THEIR RESPECT FOR LEBANON'S UNITY AND SOVEREIGNTY.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Saniora said the UN team probing the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri will present its report on time at the end of October but may extend its mission.

"Let it be clear that he will present his report on time," Saniora told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, referring to German magistrate Detlev Mehlis who is heading the probe.

"He will present his report, but there are a few other ongoing things that he will be carrying out" afterwards, Saniora said during a visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"I do not have any information at all about this report or its contents because Mr Detlev Mehlis has still not started to draft this report," he said.

Mehlis is due to submit his report to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Lebanese officials on October 21, three days before his commission's mandate expires.

Lebanese press reports quoted the prime minister as saying that Mehlis was seeking to extend his commission's mission until December 15.

Asked about the report, Annan's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters: "Technically, an extension could be done until December 15 within the existing mandate ... But we have not received a request for an extension."

Dujarric said Mehlis was still writing his report with a target date of late October.

In Abu Dhabi, Saniora held talks with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan on an upcoming international conference due to be held by year's end in Beirut to help Lebanon's reform and development.

Lebanon will be the last Arab country to agree to peace with Israel despite the departure of the Syrian army from the country in April.

Fouad Saniora, Lebanese Premier told Gulf News that Lebanon will not bow to pressure from any quarter.

He was referring to the March national uprising following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, which forced Syrian troops to leave Lebanon.

He said, "We have not replaced the guardianship of our power with another. Lebanon is pretty mature now and would take decisions in accordance with its nationalistic interests and its commitment to other Arab countries."

Saniora said the settlement of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon will not be accepted at any cost "primarily because of our obligations towards our Arab brethren and because of our national concerns."

He added that Lebanon would not sign any peace deal with Israel unless Palestinians return to their homes.

Saniora said the Syrian army in Lebanon had helped to stop the civil war in 1975 at the beginning but later exerted unhealthy pressure on political and economic life in Lebanon until it left the country this year.

"In spite of the departure of the Syrian Army from Lebanon, we Lebanese seek special friendly relations with Syrians based on mutual respect and equality, taking into consideration historical, geographic and social links and mutual interests between the two nations," he said.

Asked if the investigation into Hariri's assassination revealed any links with Syrian officials, Saniora said Detlev Mehlis, the UN investigator in the assassination, has been working independently and has not leaked any information about the direction of his enquiry and the identities of those who may face prosecution.

"Those who assassinated or planned to kill Hariri will feel the earthquake," he said.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan had received the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora who briefed the President on the developments in his country and the international efforts to hold an international conference to support Lebanon.

Sheikh Khalifa reaffirmed the UAE's support in ensuring that Lebanon lives in security, prosperity, stability, and achieves further development benefiting its people.

The President stressed the UAE's continuous efforts in supporting and aiding Lebanon in achieving further growth and development on all levels.

Saniora later said he had briefed the President on the outcome of the meeting held in New York ten days ago to aid Lebanon and the plans to hold another meeting in Beirut.

"Sheikh Khalifa pledged that the UAE will spare no efforts in supporting Lebanon and will help to develop rural areas," he said.

Saniora also said that despite the withdrawal of Syrian troops in April, Lebanon would be the last Arab country to sign on peace with Israel.

"Lebanon will not bow to pressure from any side. Lebanon is pretty mature now and would take decisions in accordance with its national interests and its commitment to other Arab countries,"

He added: "We seek special friendly relations with the Syrians based on mutual respect and equality taking into consideration historical, geographic social links and mutual interests between the two nations."

On the other hand in Paris Lebanese MP Saad Hariri, son and political heir of assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, criticized President Emile Lahoud, saying he has "no legitimacy - not in Lebanon nor internationally." In an interview published in Al-Hayat newspaper, Hariri said that he had left the country after a plot to kill him was uncovered.

Hariri has been living abroad for two months, citing security fears after a series of bombings and assassinations that followed his father's killing on February 14 fuelled concerns the country was sliding into chaos.

Hariri told the London-based Arabic newspaper he had left the country on the advice of foreign powers because of threats to his life. "But we also captured some people and knew their whereabouts in Lebanon and what they were plotting to do," he said. "We had confirmed information about groups planning for this [assassination] attempt," he told the paper in Paris without giving further details.

Hariri added: "President Emile Lahoud is trying to interfere in everything, while everybody knows that the extension of his term came under intimidation and pressures exerted by the Syrian authorities."

As to calls for Lahoud's resignation, Hariri said: "The time was not appropriate for Lahoud's resignation, which would have caused a constitutional vacuum. But after the report by UN probe team chief Detlev Mehlis, we will hear a new political rhetoric in the country."

Hariri added that he had never used the parliamentary majority to impose his will, but rather "sacrificed his power for the interests of the country."

"The country is going through a fateful period, which we should discuss with our allies," he said.

Asked about his position regarding Hizbullah and its relations with Lahoud and Syria, Hariri said: "Hizbullah is not an ally of Lahoud and Syria; it's a Lebanese party represented in the government and hence is our ally."

He reiterated that the Lebanese security services were under the control of the Syrian ones, adding that the Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon without allowing the Lebanese to rehabilitate their security apparatuses.

Hariri also stressed the need to punish the perpetrators of the assassination of his late father as well as of the other terrorist crimes that targeted the Lebanese people.

While he expressed his complete trust in the work of the international probe committee, Hariri said he was not informed of the content of its report, "since we don't want to interfere in the committee's work and we refuse to politicize it."

Hariri also added that Majed Hamdan, the brother of the former head of the Presidential Guard Mustafa Hamdan, who is being held in jail for his involvement in Hariri's murder, had fled the country after knowing that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

He added the series of assassinations and terrorist attacks targeting the Christian areas were perpetrated by Lebanese people seeking to provoke fear among the Christian leaders.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued by his press office, Hariri congratulated the Lebanese, in particular the Muslims, for the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

While he hoped that this month would witness the uncovering of the truth regarding the assassination of Rafiq Hariri and later former Minister Bassel Fleihan, Hariri urged the Lebanese people to promote solidarity and adhere to the values of Ramadan.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora held separate talks with Palestinian militant groups in a bid to end their armed presence outside refugee camps in the country. The meetings came a day after the army tightened security around bases maintained by pro-Syrian Palestinian groups no longer protected by the Syrian military after its departure from Lebanon in April.

Saniora met with Palestine Liberation Organization officials and pro-Syrian Palestinians, including representatives from the radical groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas, in the hope of resolving a burgeoning dispute over weapons-carrying.

The PLO spokesman in Lebanon, Marwan Abdelaal, told reporters his meeting with Saniora had been positive and that they decided to "regulate armament inside refugee camps so they do not become security islands." Islamic Jihad representative Abu Imad Rifai said that his "very positive" meeting had centered on "refugees' social and humanitarian rights, political rights and finally the security question."

Saniora said that the presence of militia bases outside the camps would no longer be tolerated. "There is no reason for Palestinian weapons outside of camps. This must be clear," he said. Saniora added that the government was not seeking a "confrontation with the Palestinians" and that he wanted to solve the problem through dialogue.

A Saniora aide who requested anonymity went further, saying it was "inadmissible that armed Palestinians deployed in the middle of built-up Lebanese areas put the lives of Lebanese civilians in danger. Resistance to Israel isn't conducted from Lebanese villages." The meetings came days after a radical Palestinian group rejected a UN demand to disarm and accused Saniora of exerting pressure for such a move.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), led by Ahmad Jibril, complained that the Lebanese Army was imposing a blockade on its bases close to the Syrian border. "The attempt to sacrifice the weapons of the Palestinians of Lebanon in line with (UN Security Council) Resolution 1559 will not be greeted by silence or compromise," it warned.

The PFLP-GC has maintained the bases in Lebanon for 30 years, and its stockpiles of arms were reinforced during and after the April withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. UN Resolution 1559, passed in September 2004, demands the disarmament of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah as well as the 12 Palestinian groups present within both refugee camps and, as in the case of the PFLP-GC, outside.

According to a tacit agreement after the collapse in 1987 of the Cairo accords that regulated Palestinian armed presence, the Lebanese army refrains from entering the refugee camps, in which carrying light weapons is permitted. However, the Lebanese army maintains checkpoints at camp entries and around the perimeters.

Saniora said he has the support of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who assured him that the PLO "is against the presence of arms outside the camps." Abbas adviser Samih Abdel Fattah was quoted in the Lebanese press as saying that "Lebanese laws must apply to Palestinians who are guests in Lebanon." He said a Palestinian delegation would soon travel to Lebanon to discuss in particular the humanitarian situation in the country's 12 camps, home to half the 380,000 Palestinians registered in Lebanon.

The question of Palestinian arms has been high on the agenda since Syrian troops left Lebanon in April after 29 years. The UN Security Council resolution that demanded Syria end its domination of Lebanon also calls for the disarming of all militias there, a reference to Lebanese Hizbullah fighters and Palestinian factions, most of which are backed by Syria.

Tensions shot up last week when the government ordered the army to step up patrols along the Syrian border following reports that Syrian-backed Palestinian factions were smuggling weapons into the country through remote military outposts.

Meantime Palestinian Fatah movement has reiterated its respect for Lebanon's unity and sovereignty after the Lebanese army tightened security measures of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, the Palestinian WAFA news agency said.

The Fatah Central Committee said in a statement following a meeting chaired by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah that Fatah was very keen on Lebanon's unity and sovereignty.

The statement said the issue of the Palestinian arms in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon would be resolved in coordination between the Lebanese and the Palestinian leadership.

Some 390,000 Palestinian refugees are currently living in Lebanon's 12 camps, which are controlled by armed Palestinian factions.

The Palestinian factions also maintain several military positions outside the refugee camps.

A United Nations Security Council resolution that demanded Syria troops' withdrawal from Lebanon also calls for the disarmament of all militant groups in Lebanon.