Bush orders Syria out of Lebanon
Coincidentally...
Syrian president indicates withdrawal from Lebanon
Out stay out!
The business of appearing to create positive change around the world is hard work.
Bush orders Syria out of Lebanon
ARNOLD, Md. (AP) — President Bush on Wednesday demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon, saying the free world is in agreement that Damascus' authority over the political affairs of its neighbor must end now.
He applauded the strong message sent to Syria when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier held a joint news conference on London on Tuesday.
"Both of them stood up and said loud and clear to Syria, 'You get your troops and your secret services out of Lebanon so that good democracy has a chance to flourish," Bush said during an appearance at a community college in Maryland to tout his job training programs.
The world, Bush said, "is speaking with one voice when it comes to making sure that democracy has a chance to flourish in Lebanon."
The president's words, taken with those from Rice and others in the Bush administration this week, amount to the strongest pressure to date on Syria from Washington.
"Syria knows the concerns of the international community, and they know what they need to do to change their behavior and become a constructive member of the region and the international community," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said earlier Wednesday.
Turkish ambassador Osman Faruk Logoglu urged the administration to offer trade and other economic and diplomatic incentives to Syria.
"The chances of Syria withdrawing are greater than ever before," Logoglu told reporters. "But it is obviously going to take a long time."
Rice, in London to attend an international conference on Palestinian security and government reform, had said Tuesday that Syria is "out of step" with a growing desire for democracy in the Middle East.
The Bush administration also on Tuesday blamed terrorists based in Syria for last week's deadly suicide attack in Israel.
McClellan said the White House has "firm evidence" that Syria was home base for the terrorist attack in Israel that rocked the latest efforts for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Bush made a similar point during a White House meeting with congressional leaders, participants said, and so did Rice while in London.
All key Lebanese political decisions are assumed to have a stamp of approval from the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Huge street demonstrations and Monday's resignation of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government marked the most serious challenge to Syrian authority in Lebanon since the end of the civil war that killed 150,000 and crushed the Lebanese economy in the 1970s and 1980s.
The events also were an opening for the Bush administration to press its wider goal of democracy across the Middle East and to throw a spotlight on what the United States contends is long-standing Syrian support for terrorists who are trying to undermine progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace.
At the news conference with Barnier, Rice said their two countries would support the scheduled election this spring in Lebanon, perhaps by sending observers and monitors.
She also suggested international peacekeepers might be needed eventually and could help secure democracy for the Lebanese if Syria were to withdraw.
Assad indicated in an interview with Time magazine that he would withdraw Syria's 15,000 troops from Lebanon "maybe in the next few months." Later, however, a Syrian official speaking on condition of anonymity in Damascus questioned whether it could occur within months.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, on Capitol Hill after a trip to Lebanon, was dismissive of what he called the "rhetoric" out of Damascus.
"Neither this government nor the people of Lebanon will believe anything other than what we see with our eyes," Satterfield told the Senate Foregin Relations Committee.
Separately, on the issue of Iran's nuclear program, Rice indicated that the administration was working with European leaders on a plan to offer Iran economic incentives in exchange for abandoning its nuclear ambitions. The United States has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
"We are designing, I think, an important common strategy with Europe so that Iran knows there is no other way," Rice said in a brief interview aired Wednesday on NBC's Today show.
Until recently, the administration had opposed any rewards for Tehran's cooperation. But during the president's trip overseas last week, European leaders urged Bush to join them in offering incentives such as possible membership at some time for Iran in the World Trade Organization and the White House suggested he would consider that route.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-03-02-rice_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA
Syrian president indicates withdrawal from Lebanon
BEIRUT (AP) — Elated at forcing out Lebanon's pro-Damascus government, flag-waving, singing protesters crowded downtown Beirut on Tuesday, as Syrian President Bashar Assad indicated he would withdraw Syria's 15,000 troops from Lebanon "maybe in the next few months. "
Russia joined Egypt and Saudi Arabia in trying to persuade Syria to withdraw all its troops, and Assad told Time magazine that the troops would be out "maybe in the next few months. Not after that." The troops were originally deployed during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war — ostensibly as peacekeepers — and Syria has held sway over Lebanese politics ever since.
In a separate interview published Monday in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Assad said withdrawal would require "serious guarantees. In one word: peace."
The Lebanese opposition called Tuesday for nightly protests to demand an end to Syrian control and the capture of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassins.
As politicians began searching for a replacement for ousted Prime Minister Omar Karami, opposition leaders planned to meet Wednesday to discuss how far to push their people power campaign and to ensure Damascus does not dominate Lebanon's new Cabinet.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are trying to persuade Syria to accept a timetable for a complete withdrawal by April, Arab diplomats said on condition of anonymity. Russia, a traditional ally of Syria's, also called for a withdrawal on Tuesday, saying Damascus must respect the U.N. resolution demanding the troops leave.
A withdrawal is a key demand of the Lebanese opposition, the United States and United Nations.
About 2,000 protesters were in Beirut's central Martyrs' Square Tuesday evening, their numbers growing from a few hundred in the morning. With many Lebanese awaiting political developments, protesters numbered far fewer than the 25,000 who demanded — and obtained — Karami's resignation.
"We will continue the sit-in every day until the Syrian army leaves Lebanon and until the truth is determined in Hariri's assassination," said Sami Makhlouf, an 18-year-old student waving Lebanon's red and white flag with the green cedar tree in the middle.
In reaction to the Time report, Syria appeared to back off the comments. A Syrian official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Damascus, questioned whether it could occur within months, saying the Taif Accord was the basis for this matter.
The 1989 accord that ended Lebanon's civil war does not necessarily rule out a full withdrawal within months. It calls for a redeployment to eastern Lebanon near the border, with a full pullout subject to negotiation. But Syria has not complied with the accord — one of the sources of anti-Damascus discontent in Lebanon.
Syria last week said it was committed to withdrawing according to the Taif agreement and Lebanon's defense minister said then a pullback to the border area would come soon. Both governments indicated there would not a full withdrawal for now, but that was before the government buckled in Beirut under popular pressure.
An opposition follow-up committee called on Lebanese to continue their "independence uprising" with peaceful nightly sit-ins at Martyrs' Square. But an opposition meeting Wednesday is to decide whether to continue larger protests or pursue political means.
Troops lifted the cordon they had imposed around the city center Monday and Lebanon reopened after a one-day strike to protest Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination.
In London, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier renewed calls for Syrian troops and intelligence agents to leave Lebanon.
"The Lebanese people have very courageously expressed their aspiration for freedom, their aspiration for a sovereign Lebanon. The Lebanese want to be masters of their own state," Barnier said.
Rice said Damascus must implement last year's U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, which demands a complete and immediate pullout. "The Syrians are out of step with where the region is going," she said.
Lebanon's dramatic developments — reminiscent of Ukraine's peaceful "Orange Revolution" and broadcast live across the Arab world, including in Syria where some people have satellite TV access — could provoke a strong Syrian response. There are fears it also could plunge this nation of 3.5 million into a period of uncertainty, political vacuum or worse.
Demonstrators in Beirut have been demanding Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's resignation, but some opposition members disagree over his fate.
Opposition legislator Butros Harb said demanding Lahoud's resignation "is not on the opposition's agenda."
But Druse opposition leader Walid Jumblatt, asked if he wants Lahoud to leave, told Al-Jazeera television: "Yes, that's my opinion ... because Lahoud is part of the security problem."
Opposition leaders also called for Lebanon's intelligence and security chiefs to quit over alleged dereliction and negligence following Hariri's assassination.
Lahoud instructed Lebanese investigators to cooperate fully with a U.N. team investigating Hariri's assassination, to ensure the culprits "face justice."
In a meeting Tuesday, Lahoud told the team's leader, Irish Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, that "the truth is the basic goal."
Opposition leaders blame Lebanon's government and Syria for the assassination, which left 16 others dead as well, but both governments have denied involvement.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-01-syria-lebanon_x.htm
Syrian president indicates withdrawal from Lebanon
Out stay out!
The business of appearing to create positive change around the world is hard work.
Bush orders Syria out of Lebanon
ARNOLD, Md. (AP) — President Bush on Wednesday demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon, saying the free world is in agreement that Damascus' authority over the political affairs of its neighbor must end now.
He applauded the strong message sent to Syria when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier held a joint news conference on London on Tuesday.
"Both of them stood up and said loud and clear to Syria, 'You get your troops and your secret services out of Lebanon so that good democracy has a chance to flourish," Bush said during an appearance at a community college in Maryland to tout his job training programs.
The world, Bush said, "is speaking with one voice when it comes to making sure that democracy has a chance to flourish in Lebanon."
The president's words, taken with those from Rice and others in the Bush administration this week, amount to the strongest pressure to date on Syria from Washington.
"Syria knows the concerns of the international community, and they know what they need to do to change their behavior and become a constructive member of the region and the international community," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said earlier Wednesday.
Turkish ambassador Osman Faruk Logoglu urged the administration to offer trade and other economic and diplomatic incentives to Syria.
"The chances of Syria withdrawing are greater than ever before," Logoglu told reporters. "But it is obviously going to take a long time."
Rice, in London to attend an international conference on Palestinian security and government reform, had said Tuesday that Syria is "out of step" with a growing desire for democracy in the Middle East.
The Bush administration also on Tuesday blamed terrorists based in Syria for last week's deadly suicide attack in Israel.
McClellan said the White House has "firm evidence" that Syria was home base for the terrorist attack in Israel that rocked the latest efforts for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Bush made a similar point during a White House meeting with congressional leaders, participants said, and so did Rice while in London.
All key Lebanese political decisions are assumed to have a stamp of approval from the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Huge street demonstrations and Monday's resignation of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government marked the most serious challenge to Syrian authority in Lebanon since the end of the civil war that killed 150,000 and crushed the Lebanese economy in the 1970s and 1980s.
The events also were an opening for the Bush administration to press its wider goal of democracy across the Middle East and to throw a spotlight on what the United States contends is long-standing Syrian support for terrorists who are trying to undermine progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace.
At the news conference with Barnier, Rice said their two countries would support the scheduled election this spring in Lebanon, perhaps by sending observers and monitors.
She also suggested international peacekeepers might be needed eventually and could help secure democracy for the Lebanese if Syria were to withdraw.
Assad indicated in an interview with Time magazine that he would withdraw Syria's 15,000 troops from Lebanon "maybe in the next few months." Later, however, a Syrian official speaking on condition of anonymity in Damascus questioned whether it could occur within months.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, on Capitol Hill after a trip to Lebanon, was dismissive of what he called the "rhetoric" out of Damascus.
"Neither this government nor the people of Lebanon will believe anything other than what we see with our eyes," Satterfield told the Senate Foregin Relations Committee.
Separately, on the issue of Iran's nuclear program, Rice indicated that the administration was working with European leaders on a plan to offer Iran economic incentives in exchange for abandoning its nuclear ambitions. The United States has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
"We are designing, I think, an important common strategy with Europe so that Iran knows there is no other way," Rice said in a brief interview aired Wednesday on NBC's Today show.
Until recently, the administration had opposed any rewards for Tehran's cooperation. But during the president's trip overseas last week, European leaders urged Bush to join them in offering incentives such as possible membership at some time for Iran in the World Trade Organization and the White House suggested he would consider that route.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-03-02-rice_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA
Syrian president indicates withdrawal from Lebanon
BEIRUT (AP) — Elated at forcing out Lebanon's pro-Damascus government, flag-waving, singing protesters crowded downtown Beirut on Tuesday, as Syrian President Bashar Assad indicated he would withdraw Syria's 15,000 troops from Lebanon "maybe in the next few months. "
Russia joined Egypt and Saudi Arabia in trying to persuade Syria to withdraw all its troops, and Assad told Time magazine that the troops would be out "maybe in the next few months. Not after that." The troops were originally deployed during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war — ostensibly as peacekeepers — and Syria has held sway over Lebanese politics ever since.
In a separate interview published Monday in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Assad said withdrawal would require "serious guarantees. In one word: peace."
The Lebanese opposition called Tuesday for nightly protests to demand an end to Syrian control and the capture of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassins.
As politicians began searching for a replacement for ousted Prime Minister Omar Karami, opposition leaders planned to meet Wednesday to discuss how far to push their people power campaign and to ensure Damascus does not dominate Lebanon's new Cabinet.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are trying to persuade Syria to accept a timetable for a complete withdrawal by April, Arab diplomats said on condition of anonymity. Russia, a traditional ally of Syria's, also called for a withdrawal on Tuesday, saying Damascus must respect the U.N. resolution demanding the troops leave.
A withdrawal is a key demand of the Lebanese opposition, the United States and United Nations.
About 2,000 protesters were in Beirut's central Martyrs' Square Tuesday evening, their numbers growing from a few hundred in the morning. With many Lebanese awaiting political developments, protesters numbered far fewer than the 25,000 who demanded — and obtained — Karami's resignation.
"We will continue the sit-in every day until the Syrian army leaves Lebanon and until the truth is determined in Hariri's assassination," said Sami Makhlouf, an 18-year-old student waving Lebanon's red and white flag with the green cedar tree in the middle.
In reaction to the Time report, Syria appeared to back off the comments. A Syrian official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Damascus, questioned whether it could occur within months, saying the Taif Accord was the basis for this matter.
The 1989 accord that ended Lebanon's civil war does not necessarily rule out a full withdrawal within months. It calls for a redeployment to eastern Lebanon near the border, with a full pullout subject to negotiation. But Syria has not complied with the accord — one of the sources of anti-Damascus discontent in Lebanon.
Syria last week said it was committed to withdrawing according to the Taif agreement and Lebanon's defense minister said then a pullback to the border area would come soon. Both governments indicated there would not a full withdrawal for now, but that was before the government buckled in Beirut under popular pressure.
An opposition follow-up committee called on Lebanese to continue their "independence uprising" with peaceful nightly sit-ins at Martyrs' Square. But an opposition meeting Wednesday is to decide whether to continue larger protests or pursue political means.
Troops lifted the cordon they had imposed around the city center Monday and Lebanon reopened after a one-day strike to protest Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination.
In London, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier renewed calls for Syrian troops and intelligence agents to leave Lebanon.
"The Lebanese people have very courageously expressed their aspiration for freedom, their aspiration for a sovereign Lebanon. The Lebanese want to be masters of their own state," Barnier said.
Rice said Damascus must implement last year's U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, which demands a complete and immediate pullout. "The Syrians are out of step with where the region is going," she said.
Lebanon's dramatic developments — reminiscent of Ukraine's peaceful "Orange Revolution" and broadcast live across the Arab world, including in Syria where some people have satellite TV access — could provoke a strong Syrian response. There are fears it also could plunge this nation of 3.5 million into a period of uncertainty, political vacuum or worse.
Demonstrators in Beirut have been demanding Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's resignation, but some opposition members disagree over his fate.
Opposition legislator Butros Harb said demanding Lahoud's resignation "is not on the opposition's agenda."
But Druse opposition leader Walid Jumblatt, asked if he wants Lahoud to leave, told Al-Jazeera television: "Yes, that's my opinion ... because Lahoud is part of the security problem."
Opposition leaders also called for Lebanon's intelligence and security chiefs to quit over alleged dereliction and negligence following Hariri's assassination.
Lahoud instructed Lebanese investigators to cooperate fully with a U.N. team investigating Hariri's assassination, to ensure the culprits "face justice."
In a meeting Tuesday, Lahoud told the team's leader, Irish Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, that "the truth is the basic goal."
Opposition leaders blame Lebanon's government and Syria for the assassination, which left 16 others dead as well, but both governments have denied involvement.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-01-syria-lebanon_x.htm
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