Israel hopes Syria exit could lead to peace with Lebanon
AFP
Date: 04-25-05
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel expressed hope that the pullout of Syrian troops from Lebanon could pave the way to peace with Beirut, but trod with caution following its own troubled experiences in its northern neighbour.
"We hope that such a withdrawal will open the path to peace with Lebanon with whom we have no territorial conflict," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Monday.
"Now that Lebanon is being liberated, there exists the possibility that the authentic national forces in this country will see that it is in their interests to live in peace with Israel," he told public radio.
His comments come as Syria, which has held military and political sway in Lebanon for the past three decades, has all but completed its withdrawal of soldiers from the country.
A token force is set to attend a farewell ceremony on Tuesday and Damascus is also set to dismantle its intelligence apparatus in the country.
Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, with its troops at one stage occupying West Beirut. Its last troops pulled out of southern Lebanon in May 2000.
Former prime minister Ehud Barak, who oversaw that withdrawal, congratulated Syria on the pullout, saying Israel's own troop evacuation set a precedent.
"What is happening today is primarily a result of American pressure on Syria. But the withdrawal of our forces in 2000 had its influence," he said.
Shalom also sounded a note of caution, recalling failures to secure a peace deal after the Israeli invasion and the assassination of former Lebanese president Bashir Gemayel, blamed on Syria.
He said the developments in Lebanon remain "delicate" and expressed doubt over a full Syrian withdrawal.
"We are not entirely sure that the Syrians... have withdrawn their intelligence services which have considerably strengthened their staff in recent months," he said.
The foreign minister also drew attention to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's close ties to Syria and Syrian support for Lebanon's fundamentalist Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah.
Hence, "Lebanon has (only) cut the umbilical cord with Syria," he said.
But observers saw as unlikely any imminent Israeli-Lebanese peace deal and called on Israel to keep a low profile.
"A peace accord with Lebanon is conceivable only in the long term," said Eyal Zesser, a Middle Eastern affairs specialist from the University of Tel Aviv.
Arab Israeli MP Azmi Bishara ruled out any peace between Israel and Lebanon without a separate treaty with Damascus. Efforts on that front have persistently floundered over the status of the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
"Lebanese forces who pushed for Syria to leave certainly do not want to be taken for subversives of Israel," he said.
Although Israel holds there is no territorial conflict with Lebanon, it continues to occupy the disputed Shebaa Farms area, where an explosion, followed by gunfire was heard on Sunday.
On the Lebanese-Syrian border, the district was originally part of Syria. It is claimed by Beirut with Damascus's blessing, but without Israeli recognition.
Brigadier General Gal Hirsch, Israeli commander of troops deployed in the area, on Monday accused the Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah of planting explosives in the Shebaa Farms, holding Lebanon and Syria responsible.
Syria's decision to withdraw -- in keeping with UN Resolution 1559 -- came after former prime minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated in February, an attack that was blamed by many on the Lebanese regime and Damascus.
Israel only has diplomatic relations with three Arab countries at the moment -- Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania.
Shalom recently expressed hope that Israel could reap diplomatic dividends from its historic pullout from Gaza by forging relations with up to 10 other Arab countries.
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