Bush tells Syria: quit Lebanon completely

20 April 2005

BEIRUT — President George W. Bush said in an interview on Arab television yesterday that his administration will keep up the pressure on Syria to quit Lebanon. Bush said he was pushing for Lebanon’s elections to be held before the May 31 deadline.

“The US can join with the rest of the world, like we’ve done, and say to Syria, get out — not only get out with your military forces, but get out with your intelligence services, too; get completely out of Lebanon, so Lebanon can be free and the people can be free,” Bush said in an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television. He also lashed out at the Hezbollah group, describing it as a “dangerous organisation.”

Bush said he was pleased to see the Syrian army withdrawing “and we expect them to be completely out.”

Bush said the withdrawal should include people who “have been embedded in parts of government ... They need to get completely out of Lebanon so the people of Lebanon can decide the fate of the country — not another government, not agents of another government, but the people,” he said.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati formed a new government yesterday, boosting chances that a general election can be held on time. Comprising largely of businessmen and technocrats, Mikati’s 14-member cabinet must now win a confidence vote in parliament and draft and steer through the assembly an electoral law, all within 10 days, if the polls are to be held by the end of May.

Mikati immediately vowed to try to meet the deadline.

“This government will ... begin shaping the future in this short period,” Mikati told reporters after meeting the president and speaker of parliament. “The government will hold parliamentary elections in the fastest possible time and, God willing, within the constitutional period.”

Mikati said his newly formed government would demand the resignation of the country’s security chiefs.

“I have demanded the resignation of the security chiefs when I was (lawmaker) Najib Mikati ... Now I’m prime minister and I will relay my point of view to the cabinet ... and I promise that it will agree with me,” Mikati told reporters after announcing his government.

Opposition figures cautiously welcomed the small cabinet — the 14 ministers are replacing 30 — though some reserved judgment until after it declares its programme.

None of the ministers will run in the election, threatened with delay after the February 14 killing of former prime minister Rafik Al Hariri threw Lebanon into its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

In a sign that Mikati is serious about holding timely polls and cooperating with investigators, he named retired security official Hassan Al Sabaa, a moderate, as interior minister and respected judge Khaled Qabbani to head the Justice Ministry.