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Tishrin: Syria Willing to Facilitate End to Lebanon Crisis
Away from Bush Pressures
Naharnet, Lebanon, January
5, 2008
The Syrian
state-run Tishrin newspaper on Saturday said Damascus was
"willing" to facilitate an end to to the ongoing Lebanon
crisis without pressures, particularly from U.S. President
George Bush's administration "which only works to serve
Israel's interests."
Tishrin, in its
editorial, expressed hope that Arab foreign ministers
scheduled to meet in Cairo Sunday would "succeed" in finding
a settlement to the crisis.
The paper
criticized what it called "America's order of operations"
which torpedoed the French initiative aimed at reaching
consensus on a presidential candidate.
It accused
Washington of "blocking" French efforts that were backed by
Syria and accepted by the feuding Lebanese sides after the
U.S. president "personally tampered with the initiative and
instructed the government camp to step up (their stance) and
reject it."
Tishrin said
Washington had dispatched David Welch twice to Beirut to
"directly supervise the execution of the American order of
operation in obstructing the French initiative."
It said the
Lebanese "can solve their problem by themselves without
having to resort to the Arab community if they were working
for Lebanon and not according to an American agenda."
"Tomorrow the
Arabs should take advantage of a chance in finding a
solution to the Lebanese crisis, and we hope that Arab
efforts succeed and won't be influenced by foreign agendas,"
Tishrin wrote. |
