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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Endgame on Hariri |
| 2005-09-02 |
| The spectacle of four generals in an Arab country's security services being hauled in for questioning over the assassination of a politician is not just unusual. It is unique. Yet that is what happened in Beirut this week, as a United Nations-mandated investigation into February's murder of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, enters its final days. Every bit as much as the "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon this spring, this is a moment to savour. The arrests suggest to the Arab public that the national security states and intelligence services that dominate them can be held accountable, for all the impunity with which they exercise their tyranny. That idea is profoundly subversive of the region's autocracies - and altogether welcome. The security chiefs, moreover, are part of the chain of command through which Syria exercised its smothering occupation of Lebanon. That formally ended when the Ba'athist regime in Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops after the Hariri assassination led to a civic uprising and the fall of Syria's puppet government in Beirut. Yet a string of assassinations since then, alongside threats against leaders of the anti-Syrian alliance now in government, suggests that the local satraps of Damascus are still in business. It was unsurpising, therefore, that Detlev Mehlis, the UN investigator, said yesterday that the suspects being held were "only part of the picture", and demanded co-operation from Syria. In the same way Syria was obliged by UN Security Council resolution 1559 to withdraw troops and secret police from Lebanon, it has been ordered to help the UN investigation by the later resolution 1595. Bashar al-Assad, Syrian president, says his government is co-operating but so far it has not. If that continues, Syria should itself be held to account by the Security Council. Whether or not the Assad regime is ultimately found responsible for Hariri's murder, the facts remain that the suspects being held are all hand-picked Syrian agents and the UN has already documented Mr Assad's personal threats to Hariri, although the Syrian president denies them. One of the suspects, moreover, is Mustafa Hamdan, commander of Lebanon's presidential guard and confidant of Emile Lahoud, the president, whose imposition by Damascus sparked the crisis. Mr Lahoud's reaction to the arrests was to vow to stay in office but his position is fast becoming untenable. While Lebanese nervously anticipate a violent reaction to the latest turn in the Hariri investigation, its progress so far is exhilarating. Their own willingness to mobilise against Syrian intimidation, coupled with a rare alliance in the Security Council between France and the US to keep the pressure on Damascus, has brought Lebanon closer to freedom. It is vital for that Franco-American alliance to stay together now if Lebanon is finally to emerge from the shadow of occupation. |
| Posted by:Steve |