15/09/2004 By The Associated Press DAMASCUS – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made a hurriedly arranged visit to Syria on Wednesday, holding talks with Syria’s President Bashar Assad a day after a divisive debate in the Arab League over Syrian troops in Lebanon. The official Syrian Arab News Agency reported Mubarak’s talks with Assad but did not give a reason for the unscheduled meeting. Mubarak’s spokesman Maged Abdel Fattah said the presidents would discuss Iraq, the Palestinian conflict and this month’s UN Security Council resolution on Syria’s role in Lebanon. In Cairo on Tuesday night, Fattah had said Mubarak would fly to Syria to discuss how to deal with the UN resolution „in a framework of reality and practicality.”
Fattah’s words showed some Arab states were concerned that the Arab League had not adopted the correct approach when it failed to mention the resolution in its final communiqué Tuesday and issued a statement expressing support for the „special relations between Syria and Lebanon.” The Security Council resolution of September 2 called for the withdrawal of foreign forces in Lebanon – a reference to Syria’s 20,000 troops in the country – and for the holding of presidential elections. Hours later pro-Syrian legislators in the Lebanese parliament voted to extend for three years the term of President Emile Lahoud, a Syrian supporter. In a rare challenge to a fellow Arab country, Jordan and six Gulf Arab nations urged Syria to respect the resolution, which was sponsored by the United States, France, Britain and Germany. At the Arab League on Tuesday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher argued strongly, with the Gulf states’ support, for Syria to comply, according to a league official who witnessed the debate in closed session. But Syria and Lebanon opposed the UN resolution, and the league debate ended with the 22-nation body adopting the consensus position of support for the traditionally close ties between Syria and Lebanon. The league statement also supported Lebanon’s „sovereign right to practice its political choices within constitutional institutions” – an implicit rejection of the Security Council’s call for presidential elections to be held as scheduled. Syrian forces entered Lebanon in 1976 as peacekeepers during the 1975-90 civil war. Under the 1989 Tail agreement that led to the end of the war, Syrian forces were allowed to stay in Lebanon until the two governments negotiated their withdrawal. Lebanese critics of Syria complain that its dominance precludes the formation of a Lebanese government that would push for withdrawal. At the Arab Summit in Tunis this year, Arab diplomats privately accused the Lebanese delegation of always towing the Syrian line. BPI-info
