SYRIA is seeking the help of some Arab friends who are also regional allies of the United States to fend off mounting pressure over its presence in Lebanon, analysts and diplomats said on Tuesday. Lebanon's Syrian-backed government collapsed on Monday at a parliamentary sitting on the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which shocked Lebanon and piled pressure on the country many held responsible - Syria. "There is a drive to secure an Arab cover for the situation," said prominent Syrian political analyst Imad al-Shuaibi. "Syria is directing its effort into preventing the situation from becoming an international matter." "It is only normal that Syria cooperates with its traditional allies, who are at the same time allies of the United States, to deflate tension," an Arab diplomat said. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara met top Egyptian and Saudi officials at the weekend, apparently to try to offset US pressure, compounded by Israeli accusations that Damascus had a hand in a Tel Aviv suicide bombing on Friday. Syria also appears to be offering some tokens of good will, the analysts said. It has given some of its strongest verbal support to Palestinian peace efforts with Israel and last week said it wanted to cooperate with the United Nations to find a way to implement UN Security Council resolution 1559 calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon. It also agreed on Monday to hand back to Jordan a huge tract of land along their border, heralding a new era of ties with Amman after decades of Syrian incursions on its land. And it might also be helping Washington on the Iraq front to placate it over Lebanon, analysts and diplomats said.
"It seems Syria wants an easier way out ... a compromise of some sort under an Arab umbrella," a diplomat said. "They appear more convinced that they should comply with resolution 1559 but maybe they want to dress it with an Arab cover." That cover, an Arab diplomat said, could be in the guise of the Taif Accord that ended Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, under which Syrian troops, which poured into Lebanon during the war, were to re-deploy to the eastern Bekaa valley. Syria and Lebanon were supposed to later negotiate a complete withdrawal of Syria's 14,000 troops. Damascus wanted "to marry 1559 with the Taif Accord, which is an Arab arrangement, while the resolution is an American and French measure," the Arab diplomat said. Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, informal allies of Syria, helped craft the 1989 Taif Accord.