July 30, 2006

DAMASCUS • Syria yesterday slammed US-backed proposals for the deployment of a multinational force in southern Lebanon, saying it would be "an occupation force" that could deepen the conflict and spark a backlash against the troops.

"The international force proposed by (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice... will occupy southern Lebanon and it, instead of Israel, will be charged with eradicating the Lebanese national resistance," said an editorial in the official Tishrin daily.

Rice arrived yesterday in Israel to discuss the possible deployment of multinational troops, an idea originally put forth by UN chief Kofi Annan and strongly supported by US President George W Bush, as part of plans to try to end Israel’s deadly 18-day offensive against Lebanon.

World powers are due to discuss the possible force, which would be in addition to the 2,000 UN peacekeeping troops currently deployed in Lebanon, at the United Nations tomorrow.

The editor of the government Al Baath newspaper also criticised the calls for a multinational force.

"Leaders on this level... should have highlighted that the resistance is born out of the terrorism practiced by Israel. The international troops would be nothing more than an "occupation force, said Elias Mrad". Analyst Emad Shueibi, who has close ties to the government, said such a deployment "could create violent confrontations similar to those between the Lebanese resistance and international forces in Lebanon in 1983."

He was referring to a suicide attack on a US marines barracks in Beirut which killed 241 and which Washington blamed on Hezbollah. The introduction of a new multinational force in Lebanon would "globalise the conflict, and is likely to lead to international confrontation," Shueibi said, adding that "resistance on the ground would become even more fierce."

Foreign troops would "intensify the problem rather than resolve it, and the United States could see themselves bogged down in Lebanon the way they are in Iraq," he said.

Syria and Iran both support Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group, whose capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 sparked Israel’s assault. In his weekly radio address, Bush renewed his support for the potential force. "Militias in Lebanon must be disarmed, the flow of illegal arms must be halted, and the Lebanese security services should deploy throughout the country," he said.