Lebanon in political limbo as screws tighten on Damascus

by Nayla Razzouk
BEIRUT - Lebanon's embattled president was struggling Thursday to find a new premier after the opposition insisted on a Syrian pledge for a troop pullout before it would hold talks on joining a new government.
And Russia, a long-time time strategic ally and arms provider to Damascus, added its voice to the mounting US-led international calls for Syria to end its three-decade military presence in its smaller neighbor.
Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo were also prodding Syria over its role in Lebanon.
Three days after the dramatic resignation of pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karameh, President Emile Lahoud has still not called for parliamentary consultations to name a new premier as laid down under the constituion.
A senior Lebanese official told AFP that if an announcement for the consultations is not made Thursday, they would not start until next week, leaving Lebanon in political limbo.
About 70 opposition leaders called Wednesday on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to officially pledge a withdrawal of troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon, where they dominate political and military affairs and many other walks of life.
They also demanded the resignation of Lebanon's public prosecutor and six top security chiefs to ensure the integrity of the probe into the February 14 assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri that plunged the country in crisis.
The demands by the oppositon -- riding high on a wave of massive public demonstrations against the government and its Syrian backers -- were presented as pre-conditions for joining talks on the formation of an interim cabinet.
The opposition, which groups about 50 MPs out of the 127-member parliament, has decided to be collectively represented by two MPs at parliamentary consulations, once a date is set for them by Lahoud, himself a Damascus protege.
MPs close to prominent opposition leader and Druze MP Walid Jumblatt also met Wednesday with Amal leader and powerful parliament speaker Nabih Berri as well as the head of the Syrian-backed rival Shiite movement Hezbollah.
The meetings were focused on attempts to secure direct dialogue with Damascus to win a pullout of the estimated 14,000 Syrian troops that remain on Lebanese soil almost three decades after they moved in after the start of the 1975-1990 civil war.
The Lebanese opposition has blamed Hariri's killing on the pro-Syrian regime and Damascus. Beirut has denied any responsibility and agreed to cooperate with the UN commission of inquiry but rejected a full international probe.
The Swiss government said Thursday it would send five forensic experts to join UN experts who have been helping the probe in Lebanon since last week.
Sources close to the investigation said the Lebanese authorities were examining footage of the Beirut seafront bomb blast obtained from satellite and surveillance cameras in nearby hotels.
"The films monitored the movement of all the cars on the street, including those of the Hariri motorcade, until the moment of the explosion," said one source.
The As-Safir daily said Lebanese investigators believe the explosion was caused by a booby-trapped vehicle that was moving at the time of the explosion.
It said investigators know the colour and the brand of the German-made vehicle, which was parked in the area before driving into the motorcade.
As the political crisis triggered by Hariri's assassination deepened, the international community piled the pressure on Syria.
An announcement last week of an imminent Syrian troop redeployement has yet to be implemented and Syrian soldiers stationed on mountains overlooking the Lebanese capital Beirut were seen reinforcing their positions Wednesday.
Assad, who said in an interview with Time magazine that he will withdraw troops from Lebanon in "the next few months," was holding talks with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz expected to be dominated by the crisis in Lebanon.
US President George W. Bush, whose government sponsored a UN Resolution in September calling for an end to foreign interference in Lebanon, said it was critical Syria's 14,000 troops leave Lebanese territory so that democracy could "flourish."
A US House of Representatives subcommittee on Wednesday also approved a resolution blasting the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and called on Bush to tighten the screws on Damascus.
After accusing the Damascus-based Palestinian group Islamic Jihad of implication in last week's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, the White House on Wednesday urged Syria to expel "terrorist groups" from its territory.

03/03/2005 16:40 GMT