January 6, 2006

THE LEBANESE-SYRIAN CRISIS TOPS PRESIDENTS MUBARAK AND CHIRAC'S TALKS. THE FRENCH PRESIDENT WARNS SYRIA FROM DESTABILIZING LEBANON'S SECURITY. THE BRITISH SECRETARY OF STATE STRESSES HIS COUNTRY'S FULL SUPPORT TO LEBANON. THE MEETING BETWEEN BERRI AND SAAD AL-HARIRI IN JEDDAH ENCOURAGES THE INITIATIVE FOR NATIONAL DIALOGUE. SINIORA CALLS ON THE UK TO HELP MARK THE BORDERS AND PUT PRESSURE ON ISRAEL. "Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac discussed the regional and international issues with a focus on the Syrian-Lebanese file and conditions in the Palestinian territories," according to Egyptian Presidential spokesman Soliman Awwad. The two leaders found a common ground that no one should obstruct the work of the committee probing the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, Awwad added. Mubarak and Chirac, the Egyptian Presidential spokesman said, agreed that all parties must to cooperate with the committee professionally and technically without politicising matters. Awwad said the two leaders touched on the talks Mubarak held with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, and with Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora. He added that Mubarak highlighted maintaining the security of Lebanon, and that he agreed with Chirac on the need to encourage Syria to fully cooperate with the committee and respect the Security Council resolutions. Conditions in Iraq and Palestinian territories were also raised during the talks, along with means to boost relations between Cairo and Paris, said the Egyptian presidential spokesman. President Hosni Mubarak announced that the Syrian file topped the agenda of his summit meeting with President Jacques Chirac. "I discussed with President Chirac all the (regional) issues, on top of which was the Syria-Lebanon file," President Mubarak told the Middle East News Agency (MENA) after his talks with the French leader. President Mubarak, who began an official two-day visit to France, has launched a diplomatic offensive to end a standoff between Syria and the UN and defuse the Damascus-Beirut crisis. Following his meeting with President Chirac, MENA quoted President Mubarak as saying that their talks covered the regional situation, anti-terrorism cooperation, and Egyptian-French ties. Presidents Mubarak and Chirac had "very constructive" talks on the Middle East situation with emphasis on Syria, Iraq and Palestinian territories, the presidential spokesman said. On the Syrian issue, both leaders called on Syria to cooperate with the UN investigation into the assassination of ex-Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The two leaders have agreed that the UN probe should work "to unveil the truth on the assassination", spokesman Suleiman Awwad said, adding that Mubarak and Chirac also underlined "the need to preserve the historic links between Lebanon and Syria". Awwad said Mubarak's consultations with Chirac were part of his "regional and international action to save the situation in Syria and Lebanon". He also said that the Mubarak-Chirac summit focused on the Palestinian scene now that the parliamentary elections in Israel and Palestine are approaching, Awwad said. President Mubarak has highlighted the financial crisis facing the Palestinian Authority and has called on President Chirac to grant the Palestinians financial support through the European Union. On Iraq, President Mubarak and President Chirac agreed that the recent Iraqi legislative elections would prepare the way to national reconciliation that would preserve the Iraq's territorial integrity and sovereignty. President Hosni Mubarak had held talks with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah. The two leaders urged Syria to cooperate with the UN inquiry into Hariri's murder to prevent "any harm" to Damascus. Mubarak and King Abdullah agreed that the UN investigation should try "to unveil the truth on the assassination ... in accordance with international law". They also agreed that "Damascus must cooperate with the international commission of inquiry in order to avoid any harm to Syria" . Meantime Syria has agreed to allow U.N. investigators to interview its foreign minister over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, diplomats said. The United States has warned Syria that its top officials should submit to the interviews in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for it to comply fully with the inquiry or face unspecified "further action." The United States said the agreement over the foreign minister was a positive step but wanted more cooperation. "It's not a complete step in the direction of compliance. There are still outstanding requests for interviews. And we'll see, as we go along, how Syria behaves in terms of its compliance," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a news briefing. The United States called on investigators of the United Nations to look into an allegation by former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam that Syrian President Bashir Assad had threatened former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri several months before he was assassinated. Khaddam denounced last week Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying Assad threatened Hariri just months before the former Lebanese premier was assassinated in a bomb blast in Beirut on Feb.14, 2005. Referring to Khaddam's allegation, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, "I think his remarks warrant further investigation by Mr. (Detlev) Mehlis." "I think that Mr. Khaddam's remarks raise some deeply troubling issues as to what exactly was going on during the period in time in question," McCormack said. "They raise serious questions about who in the Syrian government may have been invovled in the assassination." British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, on a visit to Lebanon, also urged Syria to cooperate with the inquiry and hinted at further action if it did not. "We urge and continue to urge Syria to cooperate fully with those (U.N.) resolutions, in particular with the United Nations investigation into the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri," he said. The current international pressure on Syria is "entirely deserved" and it is now "showtime" for its president, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says. He said a Syrian official's claims that President Assad had threatened Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri before his murder were "very serious indeed." Mr Straw was speaking to the BBC as he started a visit to Lebanon, which has been dominated for decades by Syria. He said Lebanon was now at a very important crossroads for its future. "The pressure on the Syrian regime now is much stronger now than it's been for decades," Mr Straw said. He said that though the UK and its allies did not encourage or anticipate a collapse of the Syrian government, it was being weakened from within. The "really serious questions" Syria faced included whether it would co-operate fully with the international community on the investigation into the Hariri assassination, "properly" recognise Lebanon as an independent state and end support for "terrorist" groups and complicity in terrorism. "So this is showtime for the Syrian president and the regime there," Mr Straw said. "The onus is now on the Syrian regime to match the expectations which were raised by President Bashar when he first took over from his father... and break away from this long legacy of failing to meet the requirements of international law and what appears to have been complicity in some very bad things that have happened in the Lebanon." He urged the Syrian president to "start implementing fully UN resolutions" and co-operate with the Hariri probe straight away. The top British politician urged Syria to "recognize Lebanon as a sovereign independent state and to set up diplomatic relations with it," stressing the necessity that it fully cooperate with the UN probe into former Premier Rafiq Hariri's murder. British Foreign Secretary Jack straw was speaking during his two-day visit to Lebanon, the first by a British official since Syria was forced to withdraw its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon last April following the assassination of Hariri, for which Syria and its Lebanese allies were blamed. "I urge Syria to fully cooperate with the Security Council resolutions, in particular with the UN investigation into the assassination of Hariri," Straw told reporters following a meeting with Premier Fouad Siniora. Straw strongly denied any intentions, be they international or British, to change the regime in Syria. "We have no policy whatsoever of regime change in Syria and any change of government in Syria must be a matter of the Syria people." "Again let me say, I urge Syria to do what it has done with so many countries around the world which is to exchange ambassadors, to recognize Lebanon as an independent sovereign neighbour of Damascus," he added. Commenting on the implementation of 1559, Straw said: "Resolution 1559 does not lay down a specific time frame, it is important that all groups like Hizbullah are disarmed." However Straw said: "What the international community wants to see is the government of Syria, whoever that is, meeting its international obligations especially those laid down in a series of Security Council resolutions as well as cooperating with the Hariri investigations." Straw is the third top British official to visit Beirut since the end of the 1975-1990 war. He promised the Lebanese during his visit "the full support of the international community in seeking to emerge from these terrible events to build a stable democracy." He was referring to the string of bombings and assassinations that targeted prominent anti-Syrian officials and journalists over the last year. He said: "I bring the strong backing of the U.K. for Siniora's approach to reform based on democracy, good governance, the rule of law and respect for all religious groups." Britain is one of the major donor countries to participate in the "Beirut 1" aid conference, expected to be held in the next couple of months in the city. Straw's meeting with Siniora was attended by British Ambassador to Beirut James Watt and Lebanese Foreign Affairs minister Fawzi Salloukh and other Lebanese and British officials. Straw stressed that the international community is clear about its responsibilities toward Lebanon and that it has passed resolution 1559 - which partially calls for the disarmament of Hizbullah and Palestinian factions - to ensure that Lebanon "is fully able to become sovereign in practice and theory." He said: "We will not stand by and allow that sovereignty to be compromised." Straw has excluded Lebanese President Emile Lahoud from his agenda, saying the arrangements made by Premier Siniora were "satisfactory." Straw also met with the committees of families of those detained in Israeli and Syrian jails, who gave him a letter urging him to look into the cases of their "loved ones, who continue to be held in jails or are missing." On the other hand the Head of the Future bloc in Parliament MP Saad Rafiq Hariri and House Speaker Nabih Berri held talks on the latest developments in Lebanon, at a meeting in the Saudi port city of Jeddah. The discussions, which were positive, also focused on the international probe underway into last year's assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. There was agreement at the meeting on the ability of the Lebanese to overcome all the challenges that they are currently facing through their national unity and their commitment to a democratic system. MP Hariri reaffirmed the significance of continued consultations with all parties represented in the government to prevail over difficulties in the country, and to guarantee the "systematic" work of the government and constitutional institutions, and to protect Lebanon's higher interest. He also welcomed Speaker Berri's initiative of national dialogue. Meantime the secretary general of the Arab League Amre Moussa announced in conclusion of the emergency meeting of the Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Thursday that Lebanon did not reject the mediation between it and Syria, in remarks to his attempt on December 14 to end the tension between the two states following the assassination of anti- Damascus parliamentarian and journalist Gibran Tueni Moussa's statement coincided with what was quoted by the Lebanese daily al-Nahar that he "has frozen his mediation for some times" noting that he still have hope and that "now there should be waiting for some time." He indicated that some Lebanese sides introduced great doubts on the motives for his efforts when they talked about a deal being worked out to weaken the investigation (into the murder of al-Hariri). Moussa said such allegations "are very far from the truth." The Secretary General of the Arab League, Amre Moussa had responded to accusations addressed to him by certain figures from the Lebanese parliamentary majority to that he wants to close the file of the international investigation into the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. In a press statement, Mousa said that what was stated, on his carrying an initiative to close the investigation, are untrue illusions and "are built on wrong, groundless and misleading, written or oral information and readings." Moussa stressed he did not talk about an initiative, rather he is trying to deal with several files that can alleviate the state of tensions between Syria and Lebanon. Moussa explained that the efforts of the Arab League aim at following up the international investigation to the murder of Hariri and dealing with the grave state of tension of the Lebanese- Syrian relations and their implications on the two states security and stability." Moussa stressed that he is "very worried over the grave deteriorations of conditions in Lebanon and between Syria and Lebanon," and that it is his duty and responsibility as a secretary general for the Arab league to avert risks and "to move in order to contain the situation."