Lebanese divide deepens after Syrian president's speech

BEIRUT, Oct 11 (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's harsh speech against the Lebanese opposition and a UN Security Council resolution has increased tension in Beirut where wrangling has delayed the formation of a new government.
Resolution 1559 called for an end to foreign interference and a withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon, in a clear reference to Syria, and drew an angry response from Assad on Saturday.
"After President Assad's speech, Lebanon is now divided into two camps.
"One which supports UN Resolution 1559 and the other that defends Lebanese-Syrian relations and the resistance," the Shiite militia Hezbollah, MP Nasser Kandil told a meeting of the Lebanese branch of the Baath party -- in power in neighbouring Syria.
Kandil, viewed as one of the main Syrian spokesmen in Lebanon, strongly criticised Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a strong advocate of a Syrian pullout, saying, "Syria will not let those who have never fired a bullet against Israel give it lessons".
The leader of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, told AFP that "those who support Resolution 1559 are calling in fact for foreign intervention in Lebanon."
The US- and French-inspired resolution demands the disarmament of Lebanese militia, clearly aiming at Hezbollah, the main force in Lebanon opposed to Israel and which claimed credit for forcing an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.
Earlier this month, Hezbollah's number two, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said "Hezbollah protects Lebanon ... and the Lebanese people."
Without the "resistance", Israel could do what it liked to Lebanon, he added.
But in Lebanon's Christian districts, posters praising 1559 have appeared.
They are accompanied by the words "liberty, sovereignty, independence" -- the political slogan of supporters of former Christian government leader, the anti-Syrian General Michel Aoun, who lives in exile in Paris.
In his speech, Assad strongly criticised Jumblatt, without naming him directly.
The Syrian president said his country had intervened early in Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war to save the Christians from the "massacre" perpetrated by the Druze leader's Progressive Socialist Party.
Assad also said Resolution 1559 aimed to "internationalise the Lebanese dossier" and cause a divorce between Lebanon and Syria which were "linked by their (common) history".
In an apparent reference to the United States and France, Assad asked: "What did these forces which have been expressing their attachment to Lebanon do for this country?
"Where were these forces at the start of the war when some Lebanese were being massacred in the name of socialism, justice and reform of the political regime (in Lebanon)?"
"Where were they ... in 1982 when thousands of Lebanese were killed and when Syria lost thousands?" he said, referring to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
"Their (the US) attachment to Lebanon and its democracy suddenly appeared."
The Security Council is currently discussing the resolution at technical level, after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presented a report in which he said Syria had not complied with the demand for a troop pullout from Lebanon.
Annan also said he had not been able to obtain a timetable for the withdrawal of the remaining Syrian troops in Lebanon.
In September, Syria pulled out some 3,000 troops, leaving around 15,000.
Lebanon's opposition newspapers saw Assad's speech as a "declaration of war" and opposition members accused him of reopening the old wounds of the civil war.
"The Syrian leadership does not seem to have understood that the Lebanese have definitively buried the war hatchet and that they all want cordial, but balanced, relations with Syria," said opposition leader Samir Franjieh.
Opposition MP Fares Sweid added, "The Lebanese have finished with the civil war, and efforts to resurrect this spectre for political motives are doomed to failure."
The climate of suspicion and distrust permeating Lebanon -- which saw a recent attempt to kill a Druze minister who had quit in protest at extending the mandate of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, and wrangling between the president and prime minister Rafiq Hariri -- is blocking creation of a new government.
Political insiders say Lahoud wants an enlarged government bringing in most of those who backed the extension of his term, while Hariri who has failed to persuade the opposition to join a cabinet of national unity, wants a tighter team.
Sources close to Hariri, say that a government made up exclusively of pro-Syria "loyalists" would create a bad impression abroad at a time when Beirut and Damascus are under UN fire.