THE Syrian newspaper Al Thawra has attacked US ‘interference’, and its announcement that it is going to fund the Syrian ‘opposition’ to President Assad and the Syrian Ba’ath party.
In an article by Muhammad Khayr al-Jammali headlined ‘Dirty interference’, Al Thawra states: ‘ “Dirty interference” is not a new term in international politics. It has been used for decades to describe the dirty operations that American policy carried out against many countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and even Europe.
‘The central aim of that intervention was always to cause regional and international instability through the creation of hotbeds of tension, conflicts, disputes, and even bloody wars, in addition to sowing domestic trouble and unrest to help the United States implement its plans to control the sources of energy and the important geo-strategic parts of the world.
‘At present, this interference has reached a peak, sometimes taking the form of direct military invasion and other times the form of diplomatic and political meddling through the buying out of some cheap individuals or promises of change in this country or that.
‘Despite this exposed policy that the administration of the neoconservatives is pursuing in the Middle East, around Russia, Southeast Asia, and many other parts of the world, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is not embarrassed to accuse certain countries and forces of interfering in the affairs of other countries and creating instability in the neighbourhood.
‘This accusation is made only because these countries and forces reject the policy of containment and hegemony.
‘Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Korea and all the countries where changes not to the liking of the neoconservatives took place are being accused of interference, and their policies are causing concern for the Americans.
‘While distributing the fabricated accusations fly in all direction, Rice forgot the role that her administration is playing in the Arab world and the Middle East and against every country or popular force that dares to say the truth about the dirty interference that her administration is exercising worldwide.
‘Just to jog her memory, we ask Rice what the forces of her country are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq and what her Ambassador Feltman is doing in Lebanon.
‘We ask her about the $5m that her administration allocated to support what it calls the Syrian opposition and encourage it to destabilise Syria. We ask her about the $50m that were allocated to support tendentious propaganda against Iran and destabilise that country.
‘And we do not know how many millions the administration spent in Lebanon to fund the campaign against the Lebanese nationalist forces and Syria.
‘We also ask the US state secretary about the reasons of the US House of Representatives’ bill that calls for applying pressure on the Arab League to prevent the holding of the next Arab summit in Sudan.
‘The US Administration practices all this flagrant interference and then accuses others of pursuing a policy of interference and creation of tension. No wonder: only the insolent logic produces a policy of dirty interference and turns facts upside down!’
Meanwhile the Lebanese Christian general Michel Awn who has reached an agreement on basic issues with the Hezbollah movement has also spoken up.
Hezbollah Al Mannar TV reported: ‘MP General Michel Awn, leader of the Reform and Change Bloc, has announced noteworthy positions in which he described the call made by the majority and parties of the government on the people to take to the streets as a coup against the most prominent constitutional institution.’
The call to rise up is believed to be orchestrated from the US embassy and the State Department which want a coup to overthrow. the pro-Syrian President Lahoud.
Awn stated, referring to the calls for an uprising said: ‘First, the majority is not a confirmed majority.
Second, the government’s behaviour is not acceptable in its call on the Lebanese people to stage demonstrations since it is responsible for the security forces and the army.
‘Staging demonstrations is a sacred right. However, it is not the right of the government to use people against another constitutional institution.
‘The majority has to understand – whether it is a false majority, a real majority or a temporary majority, as I do not know what title they wish to use – that they can not sidestep us – that is, the people who are not included in this majority.
‘If the government wants to resign because of its dereliction, it can resign and we will take over power and form a majority, including those who would like to join such a majority with us.
‘If the government does not want to resign, the majority should resign from the cabinet. However, for the government to resort to the street is an undemocratic act and is entirely dangerous.
‘For every action there is a reaction. We hold the government responsible for any riots, attacks and bloodshed because we heard that there will be victims who will fall in the revolution. What revolution? Do they want first to go to occupy the Presidential Palaces or a republican palace? Is not there any authority? Who prevents the government from using its authority? How can they think that unless the president of the republic agrees by force with the government on any issue under his authority, he will be accused of hampering the work of the government?
‘If they think their number is one million, there are another one million people on the opposite side. It is not a question of how many people they have – a million or half a million – in order to run democratic institutions. The constitution determines the nature of the relation between powers to run the political process.
‘Departing from this relation is departing from the constitution. We can try to work against them and force the government to resign. We do not work for the majority. The majority, which calls for beginning dialogue with us, should start dialogue with us or with the president of the republic.’
Awn added: ‘We will teach them how to work in democratic institutions.
‘How can they do such a thing? It seems that this rashness we are witnessing at the moment in the behaviour of the majority, which wants to take to the streets, is not normal.
‘If we want to gauge it with the measures of the local forces, they will wait 14 years in order to appoint another president of the republic. What are they relying on? This is unacceptable. Are they waiting for military action?
‘They, themselves, call for staging demonstrations that will definitely entail clashes because it is no longer a celebration of the anniversary of Prime Minister Al-Hariri’s assassination or a celebration of the anniversary of the liberation of Lebanon.
‘It is not a patriotic issue any more; it has become an issue of struggle for power.
‘However, the fact that the government, the ministers and the ruling parties are urging people to take to the streets cannot be acceptable because this is considered a coup against another constitutional institution.’
