Five years after the Israeli occupation ended, Hezbollah continues to claim the 100-square-mile Shebaa Farms area as part of Lebanon. The United Nations considers the Israeli-occupied Shebaa to be a part of Syria, whose peace talks with Israel have been dormant for five years.
Nasrallah, known even among his opponents as one of Lebanon's shrewdest political operators, was careful to characterize the demonstrations as protests against foreign interference in Lebanon, not rallies in support of Syria, whose longtime presence here he praised. Instead of the party's distinctive yellow banner bearing a fist clenching an AK-47 rifle, the red-and-white Lebanese flag served as the backdrop for Nasrallah's news conference. It is the same symbol of national unity being used by the opposition.
Lebanese demonstrate support for Syrian President Bashar Assad near the Syrian intelligence headquarters in Beirut.
(Jamal Saidi -- Reuters)
|
|
Nasrallah said the international pressure against Syria and Hezbollah, which increased sharply after the assassination of Hariri, was designed to further Israel's political goals, and he has called on several important Arab governments that have aligned themselves with the U.S. position to change course. Some Lebanese opposition leaders have called openly for Lebanon to recognize the 1949 armistice with Israel signed after the first Arab-Israeli war, a position Hariri was believed to have supported at the time of his assassination.
Assad used those comments to evoke a decision by the Lebanese parliament in May 1983 to authorize President Amin Gemayel to pursue a peace agreement with Israel. The agreement was never concluded. Gemayel, a Christian, is now a prominent figure in the opposition. Addressing his supporters in Lebanon, Assad warned: "I'll tell them that another 17th of May is looming on the horizon. I want you to be prepared to bring it down."
In recent days, Israeli media have reported that Lebanese opposition figures have appealed to Israel to use its diplomatic clout to pressure Syria to withdraw -- reports that Khoury, the member of parliament, called "the stupid and dirty game" of intelligence agencies. Nasrallah Sfeir, the Maronite Christian patriarch who holds decisive political sway within Lebanon's largest Christian sect, said Sunday that "Lebanon would be the last country to sign a peace agreement with Israel."
Assad, in pledging to withdraw forces to the eastern Bekaa Valley and then to the Syrian border, essentially agreed to comply with Syria's commitments under Lebanon's peace agreement, known as the Taif accord. The 1989 agreement called for Syria to pull back its troops to the Bekaa Valley within two years, and consult with the Lebanese government on a timeline for a full withdrawal.
At their meeting Monday, Assad and Lahoud are to set a timetable to conclude the first phase of the redeployment before the spring elections.
But Egypt and Saudi Arabia, among other Arab states, have called on Syria to go further by complying with the stricter U.N. resolution, something Nasrallah said Sunday would not happen.
"Many of them are following U.S. demands," Nasrallah said. "But I ask them to take a minute and contemplate that the U.S. demands are a photocopy of Israeli demands."
Saudi Arabia, in particular, holds financial and political influence in Syria and Lebanon. Hariri held Saudi as well as Lebanese citizenship and was a close friend of the kingdom's ruling family. Many Lebanese blame his assassination on the Syrian intelligence services.
There is little doubt here that the Hezbollah demonstrations will be enormous, given the party's size and discipline, and will likely dwarf those held by the anti-Syrian opposition, which helped force the resignation last week of Prime Minister Omar Karami. Amal, Lebanon's second-largest Shiite party, was represented at Sunday's meeting along with many smaller parties. Chiding the media, Nasrallah asked Sunday for the same "tight zoom" from television cameras that he said has made opposition rallies look larger than they are.
Wael Abou Fadour, a young Druze who will be part of an opposition delegation scheduled to meet Nasrallah, said the Hezbollah leader is "asking for some guarantees about the future of the resistance. . . . About the best we can hope is that he will maintain the same position."
