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Syria hails 'a new Middle East'
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says a new Middle East has emerged as a result of what he called Hezbollah's victory over Israel in southern Lebanon.He said the vision of the region the US aspired to had become an illusion. His comments came as the truce between Israel and Hezbollah remains intact despite sporadic violence. Thousands of displaced Lebanese are returning home after a halt to the conflict, in which both sides claimed to have been successful. The defiant speech is the clearest sign of how US opponents in the Middle East have been emboldened by the outcome of the conflict, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in Damascus. Mr Assad said there was no more need for defeatism among Arabs - a feeling echoed across the Arab world, our correspondent adds. As Lebanese refugees continued to pour back to their homes on Tuesday, their government said it was ready to move forward with its part in securing the ceasefire. Defence Minister Elias Murr said that by the end of the week, the Lebanese army would deploy 15,000 troops on the boundaries of the southern Litani River, some 30km (19 miles) from the border with Israel. In the meantime, international troops currently in Lebanon would assume positions vacated by the Israeli army before handing them over to the Lebanese troops. He said it was not the job of the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah fighters but he was confident they would withdraw from areas in southern Lebanon as the troops moved in. Mr Assad, speaking in Damascus a day after the UN-brokered ceasefire took effect, was giving his first speech on the crisis since it began more than a month ago. He praised the "the glorious battle" he said had been waged by Hezbollah, and said peace in the Middle East was not possible with the Bush administration in power in Washington. "This is an administration that adopts the principle of pre-emptive war that is absolutely contradictory to the principle of peace," he said. "Consequently, we don't expect peace soon or in the foreseeable future." Posted by: tipper 2006-08-15 |
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