AMERICAN LEBANESE COORDINATION COUNCIL
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04/09/04 -Reuters
BEIRUT - Lebanon's parliament voted overwhelmingly Friday to extend
the term of Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud, despite a U.N.
Security Council resolution warning Damascus against interfering in
Lebanon.
Ninety-six deputies voted in favor of a constitutional amendment
extending Lahoud's six-year mandate, with 29 opposed and three
absent.
Fireworks boomed over Beirut's city center, which security forces had
locked down ahead of the vote in parliament. Most deputies are allied
to Syria, which has some 17,000 troops and final authority in
Lebanon.
The results of the vote had been a foregone conclusion since a
hastily convened cabinet last week recommended the amendment.
Some deputies said Syrian authorities had forced their hand on the
issue.
"It is a sad scene, and a black day in the history of Lebanon," said
MP Nayla Moawwad, one of those who voted against the amendment. "We
feel sorry for ourselves."
The move came on the heels of meetings between Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad and senior Lebanese officials which both advocates
and critics of Syria's influence in Lebanon said made the will of
Damascus clear.
It also prompted a U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution telling
Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon and warning against foreign
interference in Beirut's presidential election.
The council voted 9-0 with six abstentions -- the minimum vote
possible -- for the resolution after Washington and co-sponsor France
agreed under pressure not to mention Syria by name, although it is
the only foreign country with forces in Lebanon. Shortly before
Friday's parliamentary vote, State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher called it "a mockery of democratic principles."
"It's clear the Lebanese parliamentarians have been pressured and
even threatened by Syria and its agents to make them comply," he
said.
Most abstaining council members said they agreed with Lebanon that
the measure interfered in the country's internal affairs and would
not contribute to a Middle East peace.
Syria branded the U.N. resolution a failure, arguing it showed there
was no international consensus behind Washington, which is pressuring
Syria over its support for Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas and refusal
to renounce weapons of mass destruction.
"The Security Council deliberations confirmed international consensus
on the special relationship between Syria and Lebanon," Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Bushra Kanafani told Reuters.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid said in a statement on Friday
that the resolution itself was "improper" interference in Lebanon's
internal affairs and its ties to Syria.
The parliamentary bloc of Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri -- a bitter
rival of Lahoud's -- voted for the extension, as did the deputies of
staunchly pro-Syrian parliament speaker Nabih Berri. Druze leader
Walid Jumblatt, allied to Syria but against Lahoud, led his deputies
in voting against the amendment.
The outcome underlined what many Lebanese consider their domination
by a larger neighbor which flooded their country with troops early in
its 1975-1990 civil war and has since tightened its grip on the
presidency and other institutions.
"No one takes into consideration what the Lebanese people want
regarding the presidential election. The decision is already taken by
Syria," said Beirut office worker Lena Kamel, 30. "I hope Syria
leaves Lebanon."
Lahoud, 68, a Maronite Christian general with close links to Assad,
served as army chief in the 1990s before he was elected president by
an unprecedented parliamentary majority in 1998.
Public support began eroding early in his term when he failed to
deliver on promises to reform the government and end corruption.
Squabbling with Hariri, prime minister since 2000, over economic
reforms has since held up plans for privatizations aimed at repairing
ruinous public finances.