Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1998, Page 60

Letter From Lebanon

Syria and Lebanon Wage a Counter-Offensive Against Israel’s Maneuver on 425

By Carole Dagher

It has been some time since Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yitzhak Mordechai, expressed willingness to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 425. But although the resolution, dating back to 1978, calls for total and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon, Israeli soldiers are still occupying their positions there, and the on-going resistance of the Iranian-funded Hezbollah fighters has not stopped. One thing that has changed, however, is that the Israeli-funded and directed South Lebanon Army (SLA), is facing a major crisis, with dozens of its soldiers and officers deserting and fleeing the country in the wake of the Israeli proposal.

The French government is said to have offered political asylum to the chief of the SLA, Gen. Antoine Lahad, whose wife and children live in Paris, and his men. But as French Ambassador to Lebanon Daniel Jouanneau put it, “no formal request has been presented to us,” so the issue is not being discussed, at least not publicly, at the present time.

On the political level, several Syrian-Lebanese summits have been held since Israel launched its diplomatic initiative regarding Resolution 425 early this year. Syrian and Lebanese officials have rejected the Israeli proposal because it calls for Lebanon to enter into negotiations to guarantee the security of Israel’s northern frontier.

Specifically, Israel wants the Lebanese army to deploy up to the international frontier, to disarm Hezbollah, to prevent all attacks on northern Israel, and to protect those Lebanese who collaborated with Israel in the so-called “security zone.” In brief, it wants Lebanon to act as its policeman along its northern borders.

Syria has viewed this attempt with great suspicion, complaining that Israel has other objectives in mind. These objectives include inducing Lebanon to conclude what amounts to a separate peace, leaving Israel in possession of Syria’s Golan Heights and Palestinian lands, and neutralizing the Hezbollah “military operations card” that Damascus uses as its own leverage against Israel.

In his diplomatic counter-initiative, President Hafez Assad of Syria has pressed for more European mediation in the Middle East. This would take place through Miguel Angel Moratinos, the European counterpart to Dennis Ross, and also through the British and French foreign ministers, both of whom recently visited the region.

Assad also showed a willingness to improve Syrian-Egyptian relations. He paid a visit to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a few days before U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen visited Cairo during an April Mideast tour that included Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Israel.

Egypt looked like the back channel and moderator of the stalled Middle East peace talks. Diplomatic sources say that topics discussed by the Syrian and Egyptian presidents included the necessity for coordination among Egypt, Syria and Lebanon regarding Israel’s approach to Lebanon.

Israel wants Lebanon to act as its policeman along its northern borders.

In fact, as the Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon endorsed the joint Lebanese/ Syrian position, calling it “the right one,” Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri flew to Cairo in the wake of the U.S. defense secretary’s visit to meet with his Egyptian counterpart, Kamal Janzouri, President Mubarak and Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid.

After meeting in Israel with Israeli Defense Minister Mordechai, Cohen said that, “though the Israeli initiative was not a completely satisfying one for Syrians and Lebanese, it nonetheless...should be given some consideration.”

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa almost simultaneously replied from Damascus that Lebanon and Syria “would most welcome an unconditional withdrawal [from southern Lebanon] because that would be a victory for Beirut, Damascus and the Resistance.” He added that if Binyamin Netanyahu wanted security, he’d have to pull out from both south Lebanon and Golan and that “geopolitical reality makes the Golan and the south of Lebanon one common front line.” He elaborated by saying “that there would be no security but within a global and comprehensive peace settlement” and that “Syria will not accept a peace that is conditional and not global.”

“We’re not looking for a military confrontation,” the Syrian foreign minister said, “but if it is imposed on us, we’ll face it with all our means. But we hope we don’t get to that point.”

Charaa denied that the U.S. is exerting any pressure on Syria to accept the Israeli proposal. “In any case,” he concluded, “we refuse to submit to pressure, wherever it comes from.”

U.S. Economic Overtures

On the economic level, a significant change in U.S. policy in Lebanon occurred during the month of April. Lebanese Minister of Economy Yassin Jaber arrived in the United States with a delegation including heads of the primary institutions involved in the reconstruction projects in Lebanon. These included the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL), head ed by Youssef Shoucair; the Council of Development and Reconstruction (CDR) headed by Nabil Jisr; and Solidere, represented by its vice president, Maher Beydoun. The delegation also included businessmen and the president of the Lebanese-American Business Association (LABA), Selim Zeeni, as well as the first vice-governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Dr. Naser Saidi.

Their schedule included meetings with bankers in New York and in Washington, DC, a roundtable organized by the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce that included Kirk Robertson, executive vice president of OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation), Judith Barnett, deputy assistant secretary for Africa-Near East, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Ann-Marie Emmet, the Export/Import Bank financial analyst, and John Richter, regional director for Africa and the Middle East at the U.S. Trade Development Agency (TDA).

Emphasizing the U.S. commercial interests in Lebanon, Richter said U.S. government agencies are particularly interested in furthering the reconstruction process going on in Lebanon, while Ms. Barnett strongly encouraged U.S. companies to participate in the bidding taking place for major infrastructure work in Beirut.

OPIC and Ex-Im Bank representatives announced that money for long-term as well as medium- and short-term guarantees for investment in Lebanon is available (up to $200 million per project in Lebanon at the OPIC) and that this should provide greater incentives for U.S. companies to get involved in Lebanon’s emerging market.