Syrian reading of Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon
Syria, Politics, 5/26/2000

Most of the Syrians have been stuck in front of Arab and Lebanese space TV stations to follow up events of the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon and then later the developments followed the withdrawal.

The main Syrian dailies front-paged news of the Israeli withdrawal and their other pages talking about the " Israel's total defeat in South Lebanon."

Syrian correspondents were sent to Lebanon to cover " events of liberation and the happiness of those Lebanese who return back him after 22 years of being expelled."

Meantime, the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon and its impact on the Syrian- Israeli negotiations had become a heated debate among the common Syrians and the intellectuals, despite their preoccupation with following up details on the campaign of corruption and judicial investigations with several officials and their children following the suicide of the former Prime minister Mahmoud al-Zou'bi.

Certain observers in Damascus link between the two tracks of internal and regional developments or between internal developments themselves.

The process of " internal change " in Syria has been accelerated in February since the resignation of al-Zou'bi government and the formation of the new government led by Muhammad Mustafa Miro and then the declaration of convening the Baath party congress after a long wait of 15 years and holding preliminary Baath Party elections, at a time when the corruption campaign targeted the former prime minister and other officials by bringing them to the court.

Optimists in having peace read these changes in Syria as " preparing the ground" for a peace agreement, which has become clear in the " US work paper" leaked by the Israeli daily Haartez following Shepherds-town negotiations between the Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and the Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara. Those optimists derived their theory on that the a coming peace agreement can not be signed without such reforms and changes, and the convening of the regional conference of the Baath Party in order to give an ideological- intellectual position concerning the Arab- Israeli conflict, especially as the " Baathists focus has not undergone any change or revision during the past 15 years.

The optimists also place Damascus's consent to enabling UNIFIL carrying out its security role in South Lebanon and Damascus backing to the UN mission in South Lebanon as all fall in the context of preparing the regional ground for comprehensive peace following the recent US, British and Arab contacts with Syria in backing the peace process. In this regard, the Syrian state-run daily Tishreen said on Wednesday that "the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon would imperatively be followed by a full withdrawal from the Golan."

On the opposite side, pessimists place what is taking place internally in Syria and in Lebanon, in the course of Barak's attempt to " Lebanon's first" and therefore postponements of the settlement of the Syrian track. And this conviction is built on the ground that the Israeli prime minister will not be able internally, in Israel, to convince voters to proceed on the Syrian track and that the structure of his government does not permit him now to withdraw until June 4 1967 border line including the Tibries lake. Those pessimists also talk about an American and international backing to the " choice of Lebanon first " in order to pressure Damascus to give "concessions" on her negotiation tracks.

However reforms are very necessary for the Syrian economy whether there is a peace process or not. And such economic reforms are necessitated by globalization.

Previous Stories:
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