FROM THE DAILY STAR - LEBANON
8.1.98
speaker Nabih Berri gave a guarded response to Israeli defence minister
Yitzhak Mordechai’s comments that the Jewish state is willing to comply with the
demands of resolution 425.
While describing it as a
“positive sign”, Berri said he feared Mordechai’s statements could be an attempt to
split the Syrian-Lebanese track in the peace process.
He suggested that the Israelis might bend the demands of 425 into “UN resolution
425 with security conditions”.
12.1.98
Prime minister Rafik Hariri reiterated yesterday that Israel’s proposal to
withdraw from
the south in accordance with UN security council resolution 425 was a political
manoeuvre aimed at instigating strife in Lebanon.
“We hear Israel’s proposals in information media as ordinary people do. We haven’t
got an official suggestion,” he said during an iftar at his house in Koraytem.
“Israel has a reputation of launching ‘trial balloons’, full of hot air, that seek to instigate
strife in Lebanon and give the Israeli government a good image in the world,” he
added.
Hariri denied that, during meetings with officials in Beirut, two US congress
delegations had conveyed a message from Israel over the withdrawal proposal made
by defence minister Yitzhak Mordechai last Friday.
“It has become clear that Israel has a problem with peace. The Israeli government is
doing all it can to undermine the peace process,” Hariri said, reaffirming that Lebanon
and Syria “have the same interests that are threatened by one enemy: Israel”.
Bint Jbeil MP and member of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to
the Resistance bloc, Mohammed Fneish, praised the
government for not being “fooled by an enemy trap”.
“The government, however, should announce its clear position
rejecting any negotiation with the enemy and insisting that it will
not offer any compromises on territory and water, be it on the
political or security level,” Fneish said.
19.1.98
Source affirming that Syria regards the
Israeli proposal as a “trial balloon,” and that the Jewish state is
not serious about a withdrawal.
Following the meetings, Hrawi described the Israeli proposal
as a “manoeuvre”.
The views were shared by al-Sharaa, who dismissed Israeli
premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to withdraw in return for
security guarantees.
He told Syria’s parliament that Israel’s aim was “to show that
he had a peace proposal, that Lebanon is under Syrian
hegemony and that Israel does not covet Lebanon”.
He described the ploy as showing “unprecedented cunning,”
adding that Israel was seeking “numerous conditions.”
He rejected allegations that Syria would not welcome an Israeli
withdrawal, stating that “We Syrians would be very happy with
(a withdrawal). The Lebanese people too.”
“Hizbullah would be the happiest of all because its resistance
would have pushed the Israelis out of south Lebanon without
negotiations or security arrangements” for the Jewish state,
al-Sharaa said.
FROM HA'ARETZ
15.1.98
Informed European diplomats told
Ha'aretz that four key Lebanese leaders told French
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine in separate conversations
in Beirut last week that "if Israel withdrew from Lebanon
unilaterally, the Lebanese Army would deploy its forces in
the south."
The four leaders were President Elias Hrawi, Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri, Foreign Minister Farez Boueiz, and
Lebanese Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri.
By Amos Harel and David Makovsky,
A member of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) was critically
wounded when a booby-trapped video cassette that he
carried over the Fatma border-crossing near Metulah
exploded. An Israeli police sapper, two Israeli citizens and
two Lebanese citizens were also injured in the explosion.
The sapper and the one of the Lebanese citizens suffered
medium injuries, and the others were lightly injured.
In the meantime, informed European diplomats told
Ha'aretz that four key Lebanese leaders told French
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine in separate conversations
in Beirut last week that "if Israel withdrew from Lebanon
unilaterally, the Lebanese Army would deploy its forces in
the south."
The four leaders were President Elias Hrawi, Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri, Foreign Minister Farez Boueiz, and
Lebanese Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri.
UNIFIL commander in Southern Lebanon, Major General
Konouse Konrote, said that if the IDF left Lebanon, UNIFIL
could redeploy in the area north of the international border
within one week. He said UNIFIL would cover a narrow
strip of land, north of which the Lebanese Army would
redeploy. Konrote met with Yossi Beilin MK (Labor) in
Jerusalem on Wednesday. He said the Lebanese Army
was growing stronger and enjoyed the support of the
Shi'ites in the country's south.
If the Lebanese Army does redeploy, Israel's main
condition for leaving Lebanon would be fulfilled. However,
it will be Damascus, and not Beirut that will decide whether
the Lebanese Army redeploys. Until now Syria has given
no indication that it would support such a move, which
would weaken its leverage in extracting a full Israeli
withdrawal from the Golan Heights. In 1993, after Operation
Accountability, Syria foiled a Lebanese plan to deploy
southward.
Email: yona@netvision.net.il