France to Lebanon: Build Best Relations with Syria!

Source: Al-Manar TV, 05-10-2008

Simultaneously with the publication of an American study recommending the current US administration to suspend providing the Lebanese Army with any military aids until the spring 2009 parliamentary elections, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Hale arrived on Saturday to Lebanon where he is set to hold meetings with Lebanese officials and supposed to carry decisive answers to President Michel Suleiman demand to help Lebanon equipping the Lebanese Army.

However, it seems that this topic was not raised during the one-hour meeting Hale held with the Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, a few hours following his arrival to the country. The two men found that the Syrian deployment along the border was more important and thus, they dedicated the main part of their consultations attempting to "understand" it.

Nevertheless, according to Geagea, the US official found the Syrian move strange and was unable until this moment to find any "justification" for it, claiming once again that Washington would not tolerate any "foreign interference" in Lebanon.

But Geagea noted that he has shared his personal viewpoint on the matter with Hill, adding that it was the responsibility of the Lebanese Army alone to handle ‘terrorism' in the north. Geagea claimed that the Syrian troop deployment was meant to exert psychological pressure on the
Lebanese by reminding them of their close proximity to Syrian military might.

Meanwhile, the Syrian deployment remained a source of concern and obsession within the group that was proud for years to play the role of Damascus' enemy, a role that only resulted in the collapse of the scheme to hit Syria from Lebanon. Many were the aspects of this collapse during the last stage, but the visit of a delegation of the so-called March 14 bloc made to France to raise the deployment with French officials constituted a significant failure.

Not only France has changed its whole relation path with Syria, but it also faced the "March 14" demands to confront Damascus by calling on the Lebanese to build the best relations with Syria for their own interest.

Commenting on the visit to Paris, former MP Nasser Kandil remarked that the delegation did not get the chance to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy or even Elysee presidential palace Secretary General Claude Gueant. Kandil told Al-Manar that the French officials told the Lebanese delegation that the Syrian deployment was a fulfillment of a European desire, in addition to the internal security matters.

In the same context, a Lebanese military official told Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar on Saturday that the Syrian deployment has actually achieved five objectives: Besieging the groups which are damaging Syria's internal security, emphasizing Syria's seriousness in confronting terrorism before the international community, delivering a message to Syria's rivals in the North, raising the morale of the Syrian army after its retreat from Lebanon, and finally imposing the inevitable security coordination between Lebanon and Syria to face terrorism; a coordination that was once rejected by the ruling bloc in Lebanon, before really perceiving the changes in the region...