WWW.PROISRAELFOREVER.COM Lebanese official criticizes Syria's Assad
- From: proisraelforever@xxxxxxx
- Date: 17 Aug 2006 16:18:28 -0700
The head of Lebanon's largest parliamentary block blasted both Israel
and Syria in a fiery nationalistic speech Thursday to hundreds of
supporters.
"The history of Israel is a black history, a hateful one of
destruction," Saad Hariri said in a speech praising the Lebanese army
for moving into south Lebanon earlier in the day. "Israeli attacks can
destroy Lebanon (physically) but will not touch Lebanese unity."
The son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a top U.S. ally,
said Israel had a history of "living off the blood" of Palestinian,
Lebanese and other Arab people.
He also accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of trying to sow strife
in the neighboring country where it kept an occupation force for 29
years.
Hariri was responding to a speech Tuesday by the Syrian leader in which
he accused Lebanon's anti-Syrian groups of allying themselves with
Israel, which bombarded Lebanon for 34 days.
"The speech was an incitement for sedition in Lebanon. The Syrian
president has hurt his position, Syria's and Lebanon's," he said.
The United States has accused Syria of meddling in Lebanese affairs,
and the U.N. Security Council has demanded Syria stop interfering.
In his speech, Assad attacked Israel and its prime supporter, the
United States, and said U.S. plans for a new Middle East have become an
illusion following what he described as a victory by the Iranian- and
Syrian-backed Hezbollah against Israel in the fighting.
Hariri, a strong backer of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government,
called on Lebanese to rally behind the government of Lebanon.
He went on to attack Syria's domestic and regional policies.
"The Syrian regime is exploiting the blood of Qana and Gaza and Baghdad
to bring sedition to Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq so that the Muhajereen
Palace now deserves to be called the 'Mutajereen' palace," he said in a
play on words. Muhajereen is the presidential palace in Damascus, while
Mutajereen means exploiters.
His quote also referred to Qana, where 29 Lebanese civilians were
killed in an Israeli airstrike on July 30. Syria also was accused
stirring up trouble in Iraq.
Hariri and his supporters have accused Syria's leadership of
involvement in his father's assassination in 2005, an event that
sparked mass protests in Lebanon and intensified international
pressure, causing Syria to withdraw its army from the country. A U.N.
investigation has implicated Syrian intelligence officials in the
bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others.
Syria has denied involvement.
Relations between Lebanon and Syria have plummeted since the Syrian
troop withdrawal last year, with politicians in both countries leveling
insults and accusations against each other.
However, that tension eased during the Israel-Hezbollah fighting as
Syria hosted tens of thousands of Lebanese refugees, until Assad fired
the new salvo in his Tuesday speech, drawing sharp condemnation from
opponents in Lebanon.
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