by Jean-Louis Doublet
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush on Friday stepped up calls for a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, warning the Damascus government that there could be "no half-hearted measures."
"Syria, Syrian troops, Syrian intelligence services must get out of Lebanon now," Bush said in a speech in the town of Westfield, New Jersey.
Bush spoke while the United States held talks with France and the United Nations Friday on strengthening Beirut's security controls amid expectations that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would unveil a plan to pull out at least some of its 14,000 troops currently in Lebanon in a keynote address to parliament Saturday.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke by telephone with her French counterpart, Michel Barnier, while the UN special envoy for Lebanon, Terje Roed-Larsen, conferred with officials in Washington on the issue, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.
"The goal is to help the Lebanese government and the Lebanese people have a government that extends throughout the country, that can have political and security control of the country," Boucher said.
"We're going to try to keep talking and work out with other members of the international community the kind of things that we might do to support the extension of Lebanese government authority over the country," he said.
Since the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri last month provoked a surge in anti-Syrian sentiment, the United States and France have led the international campaign against Damascus' Lebanon presence.
Syria and its allies in Lebanon have been widely blamed for Hariri's murder, and mass public protests have already forced the resignation of the Beirut government.
In his speech, Bush reiterated that his demands are non-negotiable and recalled how on a recent tour of Europe he and President Jacques Chirac had agreed about Lebanon's future.
"One of the thing we really understand is that Syria, Syrian troops, Syrian intelligence services must get out of Lebanon now," Bush said.
Bush also welcomed the call by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Thursday for Syria to withdraw its troops.
"Lebanon is a democracy and we strongly support that democracy. I was pleased that Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia sent a very strong message," he said.
The prince urged Assad to pull the troops out "rapidly" in accordance with UN Security Council demands, a Saudi official said.
Riyadh has made no secret of its anger with Damascus over the assassination of Hariri.
Bush said in his speech that "The world is speaking to Syria with one voice: We want that democracy in Lebanon to succeed. And we know it cannot succeed so long as it is occupied by a foreign power. There are no half-measures involved. We mean complete withdrawal, no half-hearted measures."
In an interview with the New York Post published Thursday, Bush was asked if there is a threat of military action if Syria didn't withdraw.
"No," he replied. "The 'or else' is further isolation from the world. You know, the president should never take any options off the table, (but) my last choice is military."
03/04/2005 22:33 GMT