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<h3 style='background:white'><b><font size=4 color="#333333"
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span style='font-size:12.5pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode"'>Sunday,
October 16, 2005</span></font></b></h3>
<h2 style='background:white'><a name=112951852674364665></a><font size=5
color=black face="Arial Black"><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>Bashar Assad is
the problem, said Rafik Hariri</span></font></h2>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=3 color="#111111"
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";
color:#111111'>Al-Mustaqbal <a
href="http://www.almustaqbal.com/stories.aspx?CategoryID=3&IssueID=934">published</a>
Monday statements Rafik Hariri reportedly made off the record shortly before
his assassination.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=3 color="#111111"
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";
color:#111111'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt;background:white'><font size=3
color="#111111" face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";color:#111111'>“Our problem is not with
Emile Lahoud. Look how he recoiled when the orders came to [make Omar Karami
Prime Minister]. And our problem is not with Rustom Ghazaleh who, as the Syrian
leadership said, represents and implements what Syria wants in Lebanon to the
letter. Our problem, actually, is with Bashar Assad.” </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=3 color="#111111"
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";
color:#111111'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=3 color="#111111"
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";
color:#111111'>The paper claims Assad offered to exchange UNSC 1559 with
Lahoud’s head but Hariri rejected, opting instead to up the ante with the
Syrian regime.<br>
<br>
“We will not be tools in Bashar’s hands,” he told reporters,
apparently off the record. “One day he orders an extension and another a
dethronement. He wants Lahoud changed now to impose someone else possibly worse
for six years. What interests us is changing the methodology (Nahj), not changing
masks.”<br>
<br>
Hariri, in a subsequent meeting with Ghazaleh, informed the latter that there
was no need for Syria to interfere in his choice of candidates for the
parliamentary election. “If you view me as an opponent, you cannot demand
political support from me,” he told Syria’s intelligence chief in
Lebanon.<br>
<br>
If the above quotes are accurate, then Bashar is not only Lebanon’s
problem, but Syria’s as well. His inconsistencies are proof of a
dangerous lack of skills that Hariri felt was going to destroy Lebanon if
allowed to continue...</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=3 color="#111111"
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";
color:#111111'><a
href="http://beirutbeltway.blogspot.com/2005/10/bashar-assad-is-problem-said-rafik.html">http://beirutbeltway.blogspot.com/2005/10/bashar-assad-is-problem-said-rafik.html</a></span></font></p>
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background:white'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white;border:none;padding:0pt'><font
size=3 face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Lucida Sans Unicode"'> </span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=3
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><i><font size=2 color=blue
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:blue;
font-style:italic'> </span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><i><font size=2 color=blue
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:blue;
font-style:italic'>Full article in Arabic attached,<br>
L.</span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'> </span></font></p>
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