Assad's promises are worthless

From the Arab Times, 3/9/06, by Ahmed Al-Jarallah Editor-in-Chief [emphasis added]....

..... In trying to establish a National Unity government, to replace Fouad Al-Siniora’s government, Hassan Nasrallah and Michael Aoun are acting according to the instructions of Damascus to bring back the days when Lebanon was ruled by Syrian intelligence.

Syrian President Dr Bashar Al-Assad recently promised UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to redraw Syria’s borders with Lebanon, exchange diplomatic representatives, and help patrol the borders between the two countries to end the smuggling of weapons to Hezbollah. Al-Assad also pledged to comply with UN resolution 1701. However, the Syrian President’s promises vanished into thin air when the Information Minister of Syria said “Al-Assad’s pledges will be implemented under suitable circumstances.” This means Al-Assad has two faces and speaks two languages. We wonder how anybody can trust the President of Syria, who contradicts himself and appears to be eccentric. We still remember Al-Assad’s words when he told the Foreign Minister of Spain that he would use his authority to exert pressure on Hezbollah to end the war. The Syrian President’s words were forgotten in the morning after Syrian officials denied Al-Assad had made any such promise.

Many Lebanese politicians have started to pull out from the contradictions of Syria... head of the Amal Movement Nabih Berri ...has described Hezbollah as an “imposed regime which represents Persian Shiites and not the Lebanese or other Arabs.”

The people of Lebanon need national personalities such as Nabih Berri, who has taken a courageous and patriotic stand representing Lebanese of the Jafari Sect. Berri has proved the religious beliefs of the Jafari Sect do not depend on being loyal to Iran or getting trapped in the theories of Persian scholars at Qom. The stand taken by Berri will keep Syria from interfering in the affairs of Lebanon. It will also help the international community to get rid of the regime of lies and derail the plans of the Nasrallah-Aoun alliance, which is trying hard to pave the way for Syria to rule Lebanon once again.