Lebanonwire.com | Portraits of Syrian leaders come down a day after huge opposition rally

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March 15, 2005

Portraits of Syrian leaders come down a day after huge opposition rally
by Nathaniel Harrison

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BEIRUT - Lebanese police removed public portraits of the Syrian leadership Tuesday as Syrian intelligence units began pulling out of Beirut a day after over a million people rallied for a full Syrian withdrawal.

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Omar Karameh, a Syrian loyalist, also began consultations with opposition MPs to form a national unity government ahead of legislative elections that in principle will take place by May 31.

A day after a massive opposition rally in central Beirut, called to dramatize demands for an end to Syria's near 30-year presence in Lebanon, Lebanese police near the sea front used a crane to take down two huge portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez, a former Syrian president, witnesses said.

At the same time, Syrian intelligence units were seen packing up and pulling out of the capital.

Members of the intelligence service loaded a truck with furniture and personal effects from a building along the Mediterranean coast, a photographer reported.

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Military intelligence officers in civilian clothing supervised the evacuation of all three Syrian intelligence offices in the capital, with streets closed off by Lebanese gendarmes.

A deeply divided Lebanon meanwhile woke up Tuesday to the task of securing a measure of political unity in the wake of huge demonstrations by both the opposition and pro-Syrian forces.

Monday's rally -- in numbers -- eclipsed militant gatherings of pro-Syrian parties on Sunday and last Tuesday, called by the Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah, and served to highlight the political splits in Lebanon.

The catalyst for the latest turmoil was the assassination February 14 of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, widely blamed here on Syria despite denials from Damascus.

The killing also had political ramifications, with Karameh resigning February 28 in the face of public fury only to be called back to the premiership by President Emile Lahoud.

Karameh on Tuesday began consultations with opposition MPs in his quest for a government of national unity, a bid so far rejected by his opponents.

Karameh was notably to see MP Fares Souaid and to receive a list of opposition demands.

"We're calling for a transition government that will oversee the total pullout of Syrian military and intelligence units and free legislative elections," Souaid told AFP.

"If our demands are not met, there is no question of our participating in the government. Monday's demonstration showed that the majority of the country is with the opposition."

Reaching an operational consensus here will surely require an understanding with Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah, the principal actors behind a movement that opposes foreign pressure to oust the Syrians and is sympathetic to the role Syria has played in Lebanon.

An editorial in the pro-Syrian newspaper As-Safir said Tuesday that "the opposition has imposed its unambiguous superiority."

"The demonstration by Hezbollah made clear its conception of Syrian-Lebanese relations as well as the balances of power within Lebanon ... Yesterday, powerful Lebanese forces open to the Arab world and the international community sought to disrupt Hezbollah's vision."

Opposition leader Walid Jumblatt in a television interview after Monday's rally argued that "Hezbollah must know where Lebanese independence lies and put an end to its political ambivalence."

Another opposition figure, who asked not to be named, said he did not expect positive results from a dialogue with Hezbollah until after a full Syrian withdrawal.

"Nasrallah, who defends Damascus, cannot carry the torch for the Syrians after their departure without the risk of alienating the majority of the Lebanese, whose support constitutes the best protection for Hezbollah."

Addressing the throng Monday in central Beirut's Martyrs Square, just steps away from where brother is buried, Bahiya Hariri, a deputy from the southern city of Sidon, reached out to Nasrallah and Hezbollah, crediting them with leading a campaign to drive Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.

"Let us merge the two struggles into one," she said, "resistance to occupiers and the construction struggle to build Lebanon."