World News 18-02-2005 Bush Sets Sights On Syria who: George W Bush what: Warns Syria to get troops out of Lebanon where: Washington DC when: Thursday snippet: On Monday, Lebanon`s former prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in what The Scotsman called a "huge" car bomb. The blast "blew a 30 foot wide crater in the street" outside the Phonecia Hotel in Beirut. Mr Hariri was the billionaire figurehead of a construction and real estate empire which includes the $125 million JPMorganChase Tower in Houston, Texas. He was a close friend of French president Jacques Chirac and "masterminded the country`s reconstruction from its 1975-90 civil war" and was, moreover, an outspoken opponent of Syria`s influence in Lebanon. The attack, claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself Support and Jihad in Syria and Lebanon, sparked fears that the country - which has been "largely peaceful" for 15 years - was travelling headlong into a conflict with Syria over the continued presence of the 15,000 Syrian troops on Lebanese soil. Hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered for Mr Hariri`s funeral on Wednesday in a show of national unity. "Sunni marched with Shia, and Druze with Christian," says The Telegraph, "as the factions that slaughtered each other in the 1975-1990 civil war paid their respects as one." The US seized the opportunity to put pressure on Syria. "The US assistant secretary of state, William Burns, who attended the funeral, said Mr Hariri`s death must give renewed impetus to achieving a free, independent and sovereign Lebanon," reports The Guardian, "and `what that means is the complete and immediate withdrawal by Syria of all of its forces in Lebanon`." Syria responded on Wednesday by declaring "a mutual self-defence pact" with Iran following a meeting between prime minister Naji al-Otari and Iranian vice-president Mohammed Reza Aref in Tehran. They said they would work together to confront non-specific "threats" now facing them, reports The Guardian. "Syria and Iran do not have a natural affinity but are alleged by western governments to have engaged in covert military cooperation in the past." And on Thursday, President George Bush "said Syria should adhere to a UN resolution demanding it withdraw the troops it has had in Lebanon for the past three decades," reports The Independent`s WEashington correspondent, Andrew Buncombe, commenting that Mr Bush seems "happy to cite UN resolutions when they suit US needs". Worryingly, Buncombe compares the White House pressure tactics to those used against Saddam Hussein two years ago. Mr Bush said he was not aware of any evidence to implicate Syria in the assassination, remarking only that the country is "out of step with the progress being made in the greater Middle East". [... more]

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