Israel Matzav

Mr. Hariri goes to Washington

When Lebanese President Saad Hariri arrives in Washington next week, he will bear a message from Syria for President Obumbler. The message will say that Syria and Lebanon are maintaining a united front of support for Hezbullah (which is still classified as a terror organization by the United States) and against Israel.

Syria and Lebanon have agreed they will present a united front of opposition to Israel and support for Hizbollah, when the Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, travels to Washington next week.

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“Syria and Lebanon share the conflict with Israel and they stand together, with the same destiny, in the face of Israeli aggression.”

Syrian analysts said they expected the US president, Barack Obama, to try to restore Washington’s close connection with Mr Hariri and to convince him to take a harder line against Hizbollah and Damascus. Mr Hariri used to lead the anti-Syrian March 14th movement, which played a key role in forcing the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon five years ago.

Such efforts would fail, they said, with the Lebanese now agreed that Israel posed the main threat to its interests and regional peace.

“The Israeli-Arab conflict remains the most dangerous problem in the Middle East, and if there is any targeting of Lebanon [by Israel] I think it is understood that will be considered an attack on Syria, under our united security front,” Mr Zaubie said. He said he expected Mr Hariri to lobby for Mr Obama to “rein in Israel”.

“The Arab policy focus is that we do not want a war but that Lebanon has the right to defend itself if attacked,” Mr Zaubie said. “If there is a war it will be started by Israel, and therefore America’s responsibility.”

Although the Syrian and Lebanese leaders agreed on policy co-ordination, there was no official mention of Mr Hariri delivering a personal message from Mr Assad to his US counterpart. The two men have not held direct talks, with the US continuing to enforce economic sanctions on Damascus as a “state sponsor of terror”.

“Hariri will certainly take a message from Syria when he meets the US president,” said a Syrian analyst on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his remarks. “The message will be clear: ‘Syria does not want war and is not pushing Hizbollah to war. Damascus does not want a fight over this.’

“This will explain to Obama that if he can stop Israel from starting a war, the Syrians and Hizbollah will not start one; in other words, Obama can keep the peace in the region this summer.”

Lebanon has no confidence that Obama will defend it from Syria and Iran and therefore it is running into Syria and Iran's arms. In other words, it is backing the strong horse and that strong horse is not the United States under Obama.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:22 AM