Saudi king in Syria amid regional tensions

[Nahraf]

Saudi king in Syria amid regional tensions | Antiwar Newswire

Saudi king in Syria amid regional tensions

Saudi king comes to Syria amid regional tensions, heated rhetoric about Hezbollah

ALBERT AJI
AP News

Jul 29, 2010 16:13 EDT

Syria on Thursday warned the United States to stop trying to interfere as Arab leaders try to defuse heightened tensions in the Middle East.

Saudi King Abdullah, who arrived in Syria on Thursday, was expected to travel with the Syrian president to Beirut on Friday to help calm concerns over pending indictments in the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington this week that he hoped Syrian President Bashar Assad would "listen very attentively" to Abdullah, a U.S. ally.

Washington has urged Syria to move away from its alliance with Iran.

Syria responded that the U.S. "has no right to determine our relationships with regional states or interfere in the content of the talks."

Syria and Saudi Arabia have long been on opposite sides of a deep rift in the Arab world. The kingdom is a U.S. ally, along with Jordan and Egypt, while Syria backs militant groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.

Syria also is Iran's strongest ally in the Arab world — a major sticking point with the U.S.

Relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia have begun to thaw in recent years, and Thursday's visit by the Saudi monarch is a sign the countries are trying to show a united front as tempers mount in the region, including those in Lebanon over the investigation into who killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Late Thursday, Syria's official news agency said Assad and Abdullah agreed that the "challenges facing Arabs, mainly in occupied Palestine, necessitate that all (Arabs) double their efforts to upgrade inter-Arab relations."

Many in Lebanon blame Syria for Hariri's assassination, a claim that Damascus denies. Hariri was a Sunni leader with strong Saudi links, and his killing exacerbated already-strained tensions between Riyadh and Damascus.

Hariri's death was followed by the rise of a U.S.- and Saudi-backed coalition known as March 14, named after the day of massive anti-Syrian protests in 2005 dubbed the "Cedar Revolution." The demonstrations eventually led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops, ending almost three decades of Syrian domination that was established during Lebanon's civil war.

An international tribunal investigating Hariri's death has not announced who will be charged, but the leader of the Shiite Hezbollah said last week members of his group will be among those indicted.

Hassan Nasrallah's announcement appeared to be an attempt to undercut the effects of any indictment, and he dismissed the tribunal as an "Israeli plot."

Many in Lebanon worry that if the tribunal implicates Hezbollah in the Hariri's assassination, it could lead to another round of clashes between Lebanon's Shiite and Sunni communities, such as the bloody conflict that convulsed Beirut in 2008.

Assad's expected trip to Lebanon on Friday will be his first trip there since Syrian troops were forced out.

Regional tensions also are high over recent reports that Syria sent Scud missiles to Hezbollah and suspicions that Hezbollah patron Iran wants to acquire nuclear weapons. Syria denies sending Scuds.

As part of his tour, Abdullah has already visited Egypt and is also to travel to Jordan.

 

[Nahraf]

Damascus: Syria-Saudi ties are none of U.S.'s business - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Damascus: Syria-Saudi ties are none of U.S.'s business
Saudi King Abdullah visits Syria to hold talks with Assad ahead of joint trip t Lebanon; Syrian Foreign ministry says U.S. 'has no right to define our ties with other countries.'
By Reuters Tags: Israel news Syria US


The Syrian government advised the United States on Thursday against interfering with a visit by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to Damascus, saying that the two countries "know better" how to stabilize the Middle East.
Syria's President Bashar Assad

A sign of Syria's President Bashar Assad on the Syrian side of the border with Israel on April 17, 2010.
Photo by: Reuters

Abdullah will hold talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Syrian capital before they travel together to Beirut on Friday to try to calm tension over a tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik Hariri.

U.S. State department official Philip Crowley said on Wednesday that Washington hoped Syria would play a constructive role in the region and would respond to the Saudi monarch's concerns about Iranian "threats" to Middle East stability.

"Obviously, King Abdullah has played a significant leadership role in the region. So his prospective travel to Syria and to Lebanon is consistent with his search for peace,"
Crowley said.

A Syrian foreign ministry statement said the United States "has no right to define our ties with the countries of the region and interfere in the content of the talks the Saudi monarch will have in Damascus".

"Syria and Saudi Arabia... know better than others the interests of the people of the region and how to achieve them without outside interference and they are able to define their policies to achieve peace and stability in the region," the statement said.

Relations between Damascus and Washington improved after President Barack Obama took power last year but major differences persist, including Syria's strong ties with Iran and the two countries' backing for the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

"The Syrian statement seems to express a preference in Damascus not to focus on the Iran issue again during King's Abdullah's visit," a Syrian source said.

Iran was a focus of talks by King Abdullah when he visited Damascus last year, diplomats in the Syrian capital said. The visit helped mend ties between Saudi Arabia and Syria, which had deteriorated after the Hariri assassination.

This month Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly criticized the U.N.-backed tribunal that began work last year but has yet to issue indictments in the Hariri case.

He described the tribunal, which is based in The Hague, as an "Israeli project" after saying he had received word that it planned to indict members of his group over Hariri's killing.

U.N. investigators initially implicated Syrian and Lebanese security agencies. Syria says it had no hand in the Feb. 14 seafront bombing in Beirut that killed Hariri and 22 others.

The assassination provoked an international furor led by the United States, France and Saudi Arabia that prompted Syria to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April 2005 and led to the establishment of the special tribunal.

 

[Nahraf]

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs

Hezbollah sees plot behind Hariri tribunal
By Sami Moubayed

DAMASCUS - Saudi King Abdullah's landmark visit to Syria on Thursday, his second since assuming the throne in 2005, mirrors Arab diplomacy at its finest hour.

The king is worried - just like his Syrian host President Bashar al-Assad - about two critical files in the Arab world: Iraq and Lebanon.

In Iraq, political rivalries have prevented creation of a cabinet for five months, signaling a political vacuum and security disaster in


the weeks to come that would be very troubling for Syria and Saudi Arabia, two of Iraq's main neighbors.

The situation in Lebanon is even more dangerous and if allowed to explode could shake the Middle East beyond repair. Earlier this summer, the deputy Israeli chief of staff, Gaby Ashkenazi said that an earthquake was in store for Lebanon later this year, when the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) names Hezbollah figures in connection with the 2005 murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Hezbollah, furious with the accusation, cried foul play, claiming that the entire investigation is flawed because it has relied on false witnesses (who were never arrested or questioned for their motives) and because it never considered Israel as a possible suspect in the Hariri affair.

Last week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah came out accusing the tribunal of being "an Israeli project" that aimed at targeting the Lebanese resistance. What Israel failed to achieve through war in 2006, he added, it will try to attain through the STL.

The international community, with strong Israeli encouragement, tried to break Hezbollah through United Nations Security Council resolution 1559, in 2004. That clearly did not work and nor did the war of 2006, which promised - and failed - to annihilate Hezbollah.

Today, four years down the road, Hezbollah is stronger than ever and, even by testimony of Israeli military strategists, seems have been left almost unscratched by the war of 2006. The war rumored to take place this summer is no guaranteed success for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and it cannot shoulder another defeat at the hands of the Lebanese guerillas.

It seems only logical that Israel would try to nail the Lebanese group through the Hariri affair, hoping that this would shatter the current alliance between Hezbollah and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the second son of Rafik, along with creating havoc between Lebanese Sunnis and Shi'ites.

The handwriting has been on the wall for nearly four years now, first surfacing in a French publication in 2006 then vibrating throughout upper echelons of power in Beirut. However, it has never been so bluntly debated in public and the media.

After an article in Le Figaro blamed Hezbollah for the Hariri murder, another report in a Kuwaiti daily was published in March 2009, followed by a very controversial report in Der Spiegel in May 2009. Der Spiegel, while refraining from naming a single source, said that a "special force" from Hezbollah had "planned and executed the diabolical attack" under orders from a certain Hajj Samil (no last name), who it described as Hezbollah's second-in-command and head of a special operational unit.

Le Monde repeated the accusation in February 2010, followed by Ashkenazi last June. Hezbollah says that it can never take the tribunal seriously so long if Ashkenazi knew of its verdicts beforehand. This would only confirm what Nasrallah has been saying all along: that the international investigation is a vehicle aimed at tarnishing Hezbollah's image and trying to finish what was started in 2004 and 2006 by resolution 1559 and the 33-day war respectively.

It seems a steady case is being prepared against Hezbollah by its opponents, both at home and in the international community. It started in November 2009 when a German ship was apprehended by the Israelis, who claimed that it was carrying Iranian arms to Hezbollah.

Then came the April 2010 affair when Israel said that Hezbollah had received long-range Scud missiles from Syria. Now comes the STL which will say that Hezbollah officials were responsible for Hariri's murder.

Hezbollah claims that ultimately Israel is trying to create a situation where Lebanon erupts into chaos and becomes hostile territory for the group. If it is accused of killing Hariri, the premier would be forced to distance himself from Hezbollah, who are crucial pillars of his coalition cabinet. Perhaps - if Israel gets its way - he would need to revoke a cabinet pledge to "protect and embrace" the arms of Hezbollah.

Ultimately, many in Hezbollah fear that someone will resume political assassinations in Lebanon so as to blame them and set the stage for a thundering declaration of their guilt in the Hariri assassination.

If the predictions turn out to be correct, and such an indictment is released later in 2010, several options would be on the table. One is for the UN to place Lebanon under Chapter Seven, which gives the Security Council the right to take military action to maintain security. The UN could claim that the 23 Hezbollah figures earmarked for accusation are a threat to international peace.

If this happens, Hezbollah will certainly refuse the verdicts and so will the Lebanese state, perhaps prompting the international community to wage war on Lebanon. Another option would be for the Lebanese government to try talking Nasrallah into a trade-off; meaning the figures named would be accused of acting at their own will and not as members of Hezbollah.

Nasrallah has repeatedly said that such trade-off is absolutely not on the table, refusing to even discuss the option that his party had been infiltrated by undisciplined warriors. A third option - and this is where Syrian and Saudi Arabian diplomacy can come into play - would be for Saad Hariri to come to his senses and repeat what Nasrallah has said - that the STL is an Israeli project that needs to be drowned at any cost.

In his capacity as both son of the slain prime minister and the current premier of Lebanon, Hariri could deprive the STL from any legitimacy.

Both Syria and Saudi Arabia refuse to see Lebanon slip into chaos. The Saudis have too much at stake in Lebanon, politically, emotionally, financially and morally, to see their ally crash so abruptly. Saad simply cannot hold on to his post without full Hezbollah support and in order to maintain it, he needs to take sides against the STL and put his full weight behind Hezbollah.

If this means turning his back on the STL and anti-Hezbollah allies like the Lebanese Forces council president, Samir Geagea, then this is a price the premier would be - should be - willing to pay to keep Lebanon safe and united. The Syrians made it clear to Saad during his last visit to Damascus that Hezbollah is a red line that cannot be crossed.

They will never tolerate any international meddling with the arms, reputation, or future of Hezbollah. According to media reports, the Saudi king and Syrian president will head to Beirut on Friday to hammer out a solution to the boiling crisis in Lebanese politics. Only these two Arab heavyweights can talk Saad Hariri into a u-turn on the STL.

Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.

(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

 

[Nahraf]

Saudi, Syrian leaders visit Lebanon amid tension | World news | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Saudi, Syrian leaders visit Lebanon amid tension
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
July 30, 2010, 8:19AM

BEIRUT — The leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia launched an unprecedented effort Friday to defuse fears of violence over upcoming indictments in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri — the son of the slain statesman — and President Michel Suleiman were at the airport as Saudi King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar Assad stepped off the plane together. It was a strong public show of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Syria, which for years vied for influence over Lebanon.

Many fear that new violence between Lebanon's Shiite and Sunni communities could break out if the international tribunal investigating Hariri's death implicates the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which is Syria's main ally in Lebanon.

In May 2008, Hezbollah gunmen swept through Sunni pro-government neighborhoods of Beirut, raising fears the country could fall into a new civil war. That crisis was resolved only after fellow Arab countries mediated a truce and political compromise between the two sides that has tenuously held since.

Hariri was a Sunni leader with strong links to Saudi Arabia. The international tribunal investigating Hariri's death has not announced who will be charged, but the leader of Hezbollah said last week members of his group will be among those indicted.

The summit was unusual on multiple levels, a sign of the depth of concern over the potential for violence. Assad rarely goes to Beirut — his last trip was in 2002, which at the time was the first visit by a Syrian leader to the Lebanese capital in nearly three decades.

Many in Lebanon blame Syria for the truck bombing on Valentine's Day 2005 that killed Hariri, charges that Damascus denies. The blast deepened a rift between Assad and Saudi King Abdullah, who each backed rival sides in the ensuing power struggle that nearly tore Lebanon apart since 2005: Syria backing a Hezbollah-led coalition and Saudi Arabia and the United States supporting a Sunni-led coalition.

In recent years, however, Assad and Abdullah have repaired ties, and the joint visit was a sign of how far the rift has healed.

Security was tight throughout Beirut on Friday as helicopters buzzed overhead. No details were released about Friday's one-day summit, although Hezbollah Cabinet ministers were also expected to take part.

Another factor behind the concerns in Lebanon is that any turmoil within this country could expand into conflict with Israel, which fought a 2006 war with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's announcement that his militia members would be implicated in Hariri's slaying appeared to be an attempt to undercut the repercussions of any indictment, and he dismissed the international tribunal as an "Israeli plot."

Hezbollah said it supports Friday's summit.

"We have a fixed policy of welcoming all kinds of Arab rapprochement and coordination toward what is good for the common Arab cause of independence, liberation and resisting the Israeli occupation and aggression," Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi told The Associated Press.

Hezbollah has immediate concerns that go beyond the tribunal, however, sparked by reports that Syria sent Scud missiles to Hezbollah and suspicions that Hezbollah patron Iran wants to acquire nuclear weapons. Syria denies sending Scuds.

Hariri's death sparked massive anti-Syrian protests in Lebanon, dubbed the "Cedar Revolution," helping lead to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in 2005, ending almost three decades of Syrian domination.

___

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam contributed to this report.

 

[T-Rex]

This visit seems significant but in reality it will change nothing. The Saudis are not smart enough to make something out of this visit, they'll probably brief the US about this visit.

 

[somebozo]

The Saudis trying to ease down tensions with this Alawi regime and pull them away from Iran. They also offered financial aid, trade and investment in syria.

 

[T-Rex]

The Saudis trying to ease down tensions with this Alawi regime and pull them away from Iran. They also offered financial aid, trade and investment in syria.

And who'll pull Saudi Arabia's protector away from Israel ? I suppose the Sauds are helpless against that and that disqualifies them to have any say about Syria, Iran or Iraq for that matter !