Pierre A. Maroun
Secretary General
ALCC
Senior Policy Advisor
ALC
Secretary General
ALCC
Senior Policy Advisor
ALC
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| Sfeir says Syrian presence still active in Lebanon July 5, 2006 Lebanonwire BEIRUT, Lebanon - Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said in Chicago on Tuesday that Syrian troops had withdrawn from Lebanon, “but we cannot deny the ongoing presence of its intelligence agencies and allies”, An-Nahar and others reported on Wednesday. Sfeir is in the U.S. for a 20-day visit that will include meetings with high-ranking officials. Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon in April 2005, responding to international outrage and domestic protests over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. UN investigators have cited evidence linking senior Syrian and Lebanese officials to Hariri’s killing. UN Security Council Resolution 1559, drafted by the U.S. and France and passed in September 2004, calls on Damascus to pull out its troops from Lebanon and stop meddling in its smaller neighbor’s affairs. The resolution also demands that the Lebanese government disarm local and foreign militias on its territory, a clear reference to the resistance group Hizbullah and Palestinian factions. Commenting on the issue of arms, Sfeir said in a press conference held at Chicago’s Notre Dame du Liban Cathedral that if in a country there is an armed group and others that are not armed, this would be considered as inequality. Some Lebanese say it is time Hizbullah, whose guerrilla attacks were crucial in ending the 22-year Israeli occupation of south Lebanon in 2000, lay down its arms and stuck to politics. Hizbullah has vowed to keep its arms as a deterrent force against Israel and until the Shabaa Farms, a strip on the border between Lebanon, Israel and Syria’s Golan Heights, is liberated. Sfeir earlier said that Hizbullah was controlled by Syria and Iran, the main regional backers of the resistance group. The prelate visited Washington in March 2005, during which he held talks with U.S. President George W. Bush. Bush reiterated calls for a free and independent Lebanon and for the full withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence agencies from its neighbor. The U.S. president praised the patriarch’s role in spreading democracy in Lebanon. |