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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><A
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<DIV><STRONG>PAGE ONE</STRONG></DIV></TD></TR>
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<TD><SPAN class=article>
<P class=articleTitle style="MARGIN: 0px"><STRONG><FONT size=4><I><SPAN
class=ArtFlashline>Out of Patience</SPAN></I><BR>How Lebanese Drive<BR>To
Oust the Syrians<BR>Finally Caught Fire</FONT></STRONG></P>
<DIV
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: bold 16px/17px Times New Roman, Times, Serif; COLOR: #666; PADDING-TOP: 13px">Killing
of Ex-Prime Minister<BR>Capped Events With a Link<BR>To U.S. Mideast
Initiatives</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: bold 16px/17px Times New Roman, Times, Serif; COLOR: #666; PADDING-TOP: 13px">A
Nearly 30-Year Presence</DIV><SPAN
style="FONT: bold 12px times new roman, times, serif">
<P style="FONT: bold 12px times new roman, times, serif">By <B>BILL
SPINDLE</B> <BR><SPAN
style="FONT: bold 10px times new roman, times, serif"><B>Staff Reporter of
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL</B></SPAN><BR><SPAN
class=aTime>February 28, 2005; Page A1</SPAN></P></SPAN>
<P class=times>BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The giant bomb blast that took the life
of a towering political figure here two weeks ago shattered more than this
city's calm. It also unleashed a deep-seated anger over Lebanon's
occupation by a foreign power: Syria.</P>
<P class=times>"It's been building for a long time," said Samir Kassir
over the din of chanting in downtown Beirut last week. Mr. Kassir, once a
lonely public critic of Syria's role in Lebanon, looked jubilant as he
walked with a panorama of religious and ethnic groups in a huge
demonstration against Syrian domination. "What's amazing is that everyone
is mixed together."</P>
<P class=times>The vocal surge, so sudden it astonished even those who
helped stir it, is the biggest challenge to the Syrian presence in Lebanon
since the occupation began three decades ago. How it happened shows the
way more-aggressive U.S. policies in the Middle East -- from the invasion
of Iraq to President Bush's rhetoric about fostering democracy -- are
mingling with local politics to jostle once-unquestioned realities in the
region. Just this weekend, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that
competing political parties will participate in September presidential
elections in Egypt for the first time in decades. (<A class=times
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110941459798165038,00.html?mod=article-outset-box">See
related article.</A><SUP>1</SUP>)</P><IMG height=271 alt=[Lebanon]
src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AC563-Lebanon02272005194353.gif"
width=247 align=left border=0>
<P class=times>In Lebanon, the opposition has been able to draw
international support from a U.S. eager for examples of democratic change
and new ways to squeeze Syria. Increasingly, Lebanese opposition figures
frame their battles as part of a larger democratic trend in the region.
"The Syrians don't want to understand that there's no more place for
dictatorships," says Gebran Tueni, publisher of the An Nahar newspaper and
a strong critic of Syrian involvement in Lebanon. "If you want a new
Middle East based on democracy, it is Lebanon."</P>
<P class=times>Syria has a population nearly five times Lebanon's, a far
bigger army and a history of regarding its tiny neighbor as a part of
itself. Lebanon was shaped by the French after World War I as a
Christian-majority state next to largely Muslim Syria. Today, Christians
are a minority in Lebanon but have an outsize role in
politics.</P><REPRINTSDISCLAIMER>
<P class=times>In 1976, as Lebanon's religious factions sank into bloody
civil war, waves of Syrian troops marched in to try to stabilize the
place. Though the war finally ended 15 years ago, almost 15,000 Syrian
troops remain. Through them and an army of intelligence and security
agents, Syria holds a tight grip on Lebanese economic and political
life.</P>
<P class=times>The U.S. and Syria have clashed on a number of issues in
recent years. They include Syria's support for violent anti-Israeli groups
such as Hezbollah, a Lebanese group the U.S. classifies as terrorist. More
recently, the U.S. has angrily accused Syria of supporting the insurgency
in Iraq. Syria denies those charges and occasionally has made goodwill
gestures to the U.S. Yesterday, Iraqi officials said that Syrian
authorities captured Saddam Hussein's half-brother in Syria and handed him
over to Iraq.</P>
<P class=times>Syria also strenuously denies having anything to do with
the Feb. 14 Beirut bombing that killed Rafik Hariri, a billionaire
businessman who was Lebanon's prime minister off and on for 10 years.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has condemned the slaying. Regardless, many
in Lebanon blame Syria. That's because the late Mr. Hariri had
increasingly thrown his weight behind the get-Syria-out-of-Lebanon
movement.</P><IMG height=231 alt="[Rafik Hariri]"
src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/Hariri_Rafik-HC-GF67702142005190941.gif"
width=136 align=left border=0>
<P class=times>To many, Mr. Hariri, a friend of French President Jacques
Chirac, also appeared to be the link between the local opposition and an
international initiative to shine a spotlight on the occupation.</P>
<P class=times>That initiative began last year, when Mr. Bush visited
France to mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day. Mr. Chirac was eager to
retain France's historical sway in Lebanon. The U.S. wanted to pressure
Syria any way it could. Despite U.S.-French tensions over Iraq, Messrs.
Chirac and Bush agreed to work together to push for a United Nations
resolution demanding a Syrian pullout.</P>
<P class=times>The resolution was timed to coincide with a struggle inside
Lebanon just then reaching its peak. It was over a plan to let Lebanon's
pro-Syria president serve a third term, despite the constitution. For
then-Prime Minister Hariri -- although he'd always sought good relations
with Syria -- this was too much. He privately made clear he opposed the
extension.</P>
<P class=times>Two days before a parliamentary vote on it, Mr. Hariri
visited Syrian President Assad in Damascus at Mr. Assad's request. The
meeting lasted just minutes. Back in Beirut, say people close to Mr.
Hariri, he told associates he had no choice but to support a third term
for the pro-Syria president, Émile Lahoud -- but that he would resign as
prime minister afterward in protest.</P>
<P class=times>The next day, Sept. 2, the U.N. Security Council demanded
the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon.</P>
<P class=times>And the day after that, Lebanon's parliament did extend the
term of President Lahoud. The move effectively locked in the status quo in
the Syrian-Lebanese relationship: a Syrian presence sanctioned by a
supportive government in Beirut.</P>
<P class=times>Despite a 1990 civil-war settlement that envisioned Syria
moving its troops back near its own border, Syria has kept them well into
Lebanese territory. The pro-Syria Lebanese government warns that a rapid
and complete pullout could result in another round of sectarian fighting.
"A direct withdrawal of Syria is a very dangerous step," says Lebanon's
information minister, Elie Ferzli.</P>
<P class=times>The extension of Mr. Lahoud's presidential term struck even
some supporters of Syria as the most blatant manipulation yet by the Assad
regime. As the extension vote approached, Walid Jumblatt, a member of one
of Lebanon's most prominent families, publicly swung into the opposition
camp. With him came his political group, the Druze, a sect with a key role
in Lebanese politics.</P><IMG height=231 alt="[Walid Jumblatt]"
src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/Jumblatt_Walid-HC-FJ49802272005181633.gif"
width=136 align=left border=0>
<P class=times>Mr. Jumblatt, whose father was assassinated during the
civil war in 1977, says he told Syrian representatives, "I have been with
you for 30 years, but I am against this extension." The arm-twisting to
keep Mr. Lahoud in power "was the breaking point," he says.</P>
<P class=times>Mr. Hariri resigned his prime-minister post. But what
really set Lebanon's political landscape trembling last fall was when
politicians allied with Mr. Hariri began attending opposition meetings.
The gatherings, at Beirut's Bristol Hotel, formulated a set of demands
that included a full Syrian withdrawal.</P>
<P class=times>Mr. Hariri himself didn't attend. But Christian politicians
close to him did. And then Sunni Muslims started going, at the behest of
Mr. Hariri, a Sunni. "When he sent the Muslim representatives, we knew he
was committed," says Nasib Lahoud, a longtime opponent of Lebanon's
pro-Syrian government.</P>
<P class=times>Then on Oct. 2, a bomb went off next to the car of a Druze
politician close to Mr. Hariri. It badly injured the politician, Marwan
Hamadeh. Opposition leaders blamed Syria, which denied any role.</P>
<P class=times>Two months later, the recovering Mr. Hamadeh held a meeting
with Mr. Hariri and Mr. Jumblatt. Mr. Hamadeh says that while the talk
wasn't overtly about opposition activities, it was clear Mr. Hariri now
was with them. He recalls Mr. Hariri asking, as he looked at Mr. Jumblatt,
"Who will be next, you or me?"</P>
<P class=times>By then, the Bristol Hotel group was preparing to mount a
challenge in coming parliamentary elections based on an
independence-from-Syria theme. The rumor mill buzzed with talk that Mr.
Hariri would come out in full support of it. That would have caused a
political earthquake, because Lebanon's quarrelsome religion-based
factions had never cooperated on that scale, much less united behind a
leader with the stature of Mr. Hariri.</P>
<P class=times>Then, two weeks ago, came the explosion that killed Mr.
Hariri and seven of his bodyguards. It detonated in Beirut's seaside hotel
district as his armored convoy whisked through, heading to his palatial
downtown home.</P>
<P class=times>Mr. Jumblatt was across town, where the Druze leader easily
heard the gigantic blast. He went directly to the hospital. Soon Mr.
Hariri's oldest son, Bahaa, arrived. Mr. Jumblatt, who had been filled in
by doctors, was the one to tell him, "The news is bad."</P><IMG height=492
alt="[Extended Engagement]"
src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AC565_Lebanon_jump02272005191409.gif"
width=264 align=left border=0>
<P class=times>The two went to the Hariri mansion. While crowds gathered
outside, political and religious leaders poured in. Soon the entire
Bristol Hotel group of some 60 people sat shoulder-to-shoulder around a
long table in the formal dining room. It was the first time
parliamentarians from Mr. Hariri's faction had ever sat together with the
opposition.</P>
<P class=times>Within an hour, the group issued a statement demanding the
resignation of the Lebanese government, international monitors for this
spring's elections and full withdrawal of Syrian forces.</P>
<P class=times>Two days later, a huge crowd, a cross-section of Lebanese,
gathered for Mr. Hariri's funeral. It turned into the largest anti-Syrian
rally anyone could remember seeing in Lebanon.</P>
<P class=times>Days later, pro-Syrian Shiite Muslim groups used equally
large gatherings for a religious holiday to shout their support for Syria.
Still, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah called for dialogue with the
opposition and seemed to go out of his way to avoid inciting the
crowd.</P>
<P class=times>At a second big opposition rally a week after the bombing,
marchers waved signs saying "Syrial Killer" and banners reading
"Independence 2005." Students organized a tent-city protest, mimicking a
tactic Ukrainians used this winter to help push out a Russian-backed
regime.</P>
<P class=times>As the protests have grown, Syria has said it will withdraw
if Lebanon's government asks it to. Syria has also said it would begin
moving some of the troops nearer to its border, as the 1990 civil-war
settlement stipulates. It hasn't given a timetable, however.</P>
<P class=times>As pleased as the Bush administration is at the surge of
Syrian opposition in Lebanon, that opposition could present hard choices
for U.S. policy in the future. Nearly all in the opposition say a Lebanon
free of Syria would need to acknowledge an important role for Hezbollah in
the country -- though they want to see it disarm as other militias have.
The U.S. and Israel view the prospect of a central role for Hezbollah role
as anathema.</P>
<P class=times>And reducing Syrian influence in Lebanon won't be easy.
Syria, with a moribund economy and the loss of its onetime patron the
Soviet Union, leans on Lebanon to stay afloat. Tens of thousands of Syrian
laborers have worked on the rebuilding of Beirut, sending home cash.</P>
<P class=times>In addition, Lebanon remains key to Syria's hopes of
regaining the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967. That's because
the Syrian-backed Hezbollah militia is one of Syria's main means of
pressuring Israel and remaining a player in the Middle East power
game.</P>
<P class=times>For reasons such as these, even those demanding Syrian
withdrawal say ways must be found to do it without undercutting Mr.
Assad's regime. "We have to find a way to convince the Syrians that a
healthy relationship is in their own interest," says Riad Tabbarah, a
close adviser to Mr. Hariri and onetime Lebanese ambassador to the
U.S.</P>
<P class=times>Mr. Lahoud's Lebanese government has welcomed a U.N. team
to help with the probe of the Hariri murder, but rejects an opposition
demand for an outside investigation. The government also has called talks
with the opposition and with Syria to reduce tensions.</P>
<P class=times>President Bush has been citing the invigorated Lebanese
opposition as an example of democracy flowering in the region. Some
Lebanese with scant faith in U.S. policies also embrace the opening as
historic. The late Mr. Hariri was no fan of Mr. Bush, but Hariri allies
were thrilled last week to see the U.S. president put Lebanon's situation
at the center of his statements as he toured Europe.</P>
<P class=times>Then there's Mr. Jumblatt. Sixteen months ago, when a
rocket hit the Baghdad hotel of visiting U.S. Undersecretary of Defense
Paul Wolfowitz, Mr. Jumblatt said it was too bad the U.S. official
escaped. The U.S. government was so angry it revoked the Druze leader's
visa.</P>
<P class=times>Mr. Jumblatt remains cool to the administration, but now
he's directing his ire toward Syria. "We're broken the hold of fear," he
says. "Either we will get them out, or they will kill us one by one."</P>
<P class=times><B>Write to</B> Bill Spindle at <A class=times
href="mailto:bill.spindle@wsj.com">bill.spindle@wsj.com</A></P></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>1. <A
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110941459798165038,00.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110941459798165038,00.html</A></FONT></DIV>
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