Vol. 71/No. 24      June 18, 2007

Washington also kept up pressure on the Syrian government last week by winning approval in the United Nations Security Council for a special court to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. An initial UN investigation implicated the Syrian government in the killing, but Damascus denies involvement.

On May 20, Lebanese troops laid siege to the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr al-Bared and bombarded it with tank and artillery fire. The Lebanese government said its goal is to destroy Fatah al-Islam, an armed group based in the camp which Beirut claims has ties to al-Qaeda.

Walid Jumblat, a Druze leader and member of Lebanon’s parliament, has accused the Syrian government of creating and arming Fatah al-Islam in order to undermine the Lebanese government.

In 2004, a Jordanian military court sentenced Fatah al-Islam’s leader Shakir al-Abssi, a Palestinian, and Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, to death in absentia for the 2002 murder of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan. Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was killed last year by the U.S. military.

A U.S. Air Force transport plane landed at Beirut airport May 24, delivering the first of eight loads of military hardware within a day of the State Department’s approval of the shipment, according to the May 28 Defense News. Seven other plane loads arrived over the next 24 hours.

While Lebanese officials complained that the equipment was not arriving fast enough, an official in the U.S. embassy in Beirut said Lebanon had been “leap-frogged over just about everyone in the pipeline” to receive the equipment. Washington sent the Lebanese government $30 million in military aid last year and has pledged to send some $280 million this year.

Fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam broke out following a raid on several homes in Tripoli alleged to be Fatah al-Islam outposts. The group responded with attacks on Lebanese army positions near Nahr al-Bared, where some 40,000 Palestinian refugees live.

Some residents of Tripoli welcomed the Lebanese army into the city and applauded whenever tanks fired rounds into the camp. “We wish the government would destroy the whole camp and the rest of the camps,” said Ahmad al-Marooq, according to the New York Times. Others opposed the assault.

Such divisions are rooted in a divide-and-rule setup imposed by French imperialism during its colonial rule of Lebanon, which largely disenfranchised the Muslim majority while selecting the president and armed forces chief from among Maronite Christians.

The Lebanese military has surrounded Nahr al-Bared and is gearing up for a renewed fight but has given Palestinian organizations in the camp a chance to convince Fatah al-Islam to surrender. Palestinian groups involved in the negotiations include Hamas, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Fatah, the party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, which has no connection to Fatah al-Islam.

Abu Imad al-Wanni, a Fatah regional leader in the camps, accused Fatah al-Islam of firing on Palestinian civilians from rooftops to prevent them from leaving the camp, reported the French Press Agency. “They know that as long as the civilians are there, the army will not be able to launch a full-scale assault,” said al-Wanni.

Under a 1969 agreement with Arab states and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Lebanese army is not allowed to enter Palestinian refugee camps. But the Associated Press reported that Lebanese defense minister Elias Murr said May 25, “If the political negotiations fail, I leave it to the military command to do what is necessary.”

Meanwhile, a U.S.- and British-sponsored resolution to establish a special tribunal to try suspects in Hariri’s assassination was approved May 30 by 10 of the 15 UN Security Council members. Moscow and Beijing, which have veto power, abstained, as did the representatives of South Africa, Indonesia, and Qatar.

In 1976 Syrian troops intervened in Lebanon’s civil war to prop up the government and its rightist allies, who were facing defeat by Lebanese nationalists and Palestinian refugees. Syrian troops were withdrawn from Lebanon in the wake of massive protests following the assassination of Hariri, for which many Lebanese held Damascus responsible.  
 
 
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