Dual Saudi-Syrian visit leaves Lebanon still divided
Beirut (AsiaNews) - "A booster injection and many symbols" is how the headline in the daily L'Orient-Le Jour describes yesterday's visit to Lebanon by Saudi King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar el-Assad.
The "booster" they speak of is a “vaccine against violence" administered in Doha two years ago and refers to the election of a president of the republic and the formation of a "unity government".
More precisely it refers to anticipating and neutralizing the subversive and devastating effects of an indictment by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (GRT), which could blame Hezbollah for the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, on 14 February 2005.
The "historic" visit lasted only a few hours, but enough to draw new "red lines" that can not overstepped. Touch Saad Hariri and you touch King Abdullah said the Saudi monarch’s visit to the home and office of Saad Hariri. Threaten Hezbollah means to threatening Syria, says the private meeting between the deputy of Hezbollah and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem.
This was already known, but now it has been reinforced. And the fact that King Abdullah and Assad travelled together on the same plane to Beirut, from Damascus, reinforces the symbolism and consensus on this agreement: this is how things should go, and not otherwise.
In a gesture of a certain magnitude, in the presidential palace in Baabda, the Syrian head of state had a private meeting with Speaker of the House Nabih Berry, the leader of a fraction of the Shiite community, traditionally close to Syria. [This means that] it is - with discretion – distancing itself from Iran? It is too early to tell, but we need to acknowledge the possibility, in the light of events to come.
Of all the meanings that can be read into yesterday’s dual visit, for the moment one should be underlined: Lebanon remains deeply divided, so much so that it has taken two major Arab countries, Saudi Arabia and Syria, to help stabilise it and prevent implosion. The spectre of this implosion was profiled with the thundering declarations of Hezbollah, through the voice of its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, who said they would use “a real act of force” - similar to that launched May 7, 2008 against some bastions Sunni and Druze in Lebanon - to defend themselves against what he considers a "conspiracy".
A Member of the Lebanese Forces, present at Baabda to welcome the two Arab guests, said the double visit could be coined by the word "calm" and not the word "rules".
This "calm" leaves the delicate issues of the relationship with Syria and the Maronite community, and parties representing Christians totally open. In fact, the head of the Maronite Church was not invited to Baabda and the Chairman of the Kataeb party, the former head of state Amin Gemayel, along with his deputies, did not attend. Until there is a real rapprochement between the Maronite Patriarch and Syria something will always be lacking from the "normalization" under way in the Lebanese-Syrian relations.
This calm also leaves the issue of the Tribunal entirely open, whose indictment should be released "this autumn", without specifying any date. But here the game is probably harder and more complex. Neither Saudi Arabia nor Syria will block the path of international justice.
Arab attempts will possibly delay its publication, but it seems impossible that it could weigh on the investigation or even stifle it. If the findings provoke a civil war in Lebanon, the Lebanese will have to settle for the truth, but without justice.
L'Orient-Le Jour, through the pen of Scarlett Haddad writes: "After arriving together on board the same plane, at a special moment in the history of Lebanon, King Abdullah and Syrian President left separately, each on their own means of transportation”. The interval is over. It only remains to be seen how many weeks of calm Lebanon has gained in this way.
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26/01/2006
