The Palestinian organizations targeted by Powell in his Syria visit were Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. In addition to calling on Assad to shut down their Damascus offices, Powell urged him to get behind Washington’s so-called road map to peace, aimed at stifling the Palestinian struggle, and demanded support for the U.S.-imposed regime now being set up in Iraq.

The U.S. politician also insisted that Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon and end all assistance to the Hezbollah organization, which waged a 20-year struggle against the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon.

Democratic Party congressman Thomas Lantos had struck similar themes in a visit to Damascus the previous week. Lantos is a sponsor of the Syrian Accountability and Lebanese Restoration of Sovereignty Act, which calls for Syria to be held responsible for attacks by Hezbollah militants and threatens it with economic sanctions. The congressman described Syria’s official stance of opposition to the invasion of Iraq as a “historic mistake.”

The next day Powell met Lebanese president Emile Lahoud. At a subsequent press conference, he said that in addition to clamping down on Hezbollah’s actions, the Lebanese government should send its army into the southern territories liberated from Israel in 2000—an area that is presently under Hezbollah’s control.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Ezzieddine stated, “Hezbollah is present in the villages adjacent to the border [with Israel]. Hezbollah fighters are the sons of these villages and they are determined to remain there. No one has the right to ask them to leave the border area.”

In a clear reference to Syria, Powell said that all foreign military forces must be withdrawn from the country. Damascus maintains 20,000 troops in Lebanon, having initially intervened in 1976 to block the victory of a mass upsurge led by the Palestine Liberation Organization and an alliance of Lebanese groups and parties in the civil war raging at the time. Washington had encouraged that intervention.

The Lebanese government mobilized the armed forces and set up checkpoints during the visit, giving the city the feel of a military occupation.

In contrast to previous weeks, no protests against Washington’s occupation in Iraq occurred. However, several hundred rightist youth rallied to demand, “Syria out of Lebanon now”— a sign that Washington’s attacks on the Syrian government have put wind in the sails of right-wing Christian forces in Lebanon. Some held banners stating that “the Syrian regime is another version of Saddam.” Security forces arrested several participants in the right-wing demonstration.

At an April 30 vigil attended by some 200 people in central Beirut to honor those killed by the occupying forces in Palestine and Iraq, Jamal Al Kurdi told this reporter, “Most people in the country are now in a state of shock and are demoralized. They are trying to figure out what happened, why did Iraq fall so easily, how can imperialism be stopped and defeated.”

Kurdi had been a member of the Lebanese delegation at the April 19-21 International Student and Youth Meeting Against Aggression on Iraq. “Having attended the conference in Baghdad, I was not at all surprised by the defeat in Iraq,” he said. “I was sitting in the back of the conference and had a full view of all the Iraqi youth delegates. Every time a speaker would make a reference to fighting until the last drop of blood to defend Saddam and Iraq, marshals would run through the hundreds of Iraqis and prod them to rise and applaud. Right there and then I knew that you could not defeat the American imperialists with such methods and such human material.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of young Lebanese, along with Palestinians from the refugee camps in Lebanon, found their way into Iraq to join the fight against Washington and London’s aggression.

Khatoun Haidar reported in the April 30 issue of Beirut’s Daily Star on the experiences of three such fighters. “The moment they arrived in Baghdad, they sensed a lack of military readiness,” he wrote. “No ditches, barricades, entrenchments, or mining, as one would expect in a city preparing for urban warfare. They were badly fed and badly equipped.

“They witnessed the first incursion into Baghdad airport and swear that the battle was fierce and that attacking forces had to retreat,” Haidar continued. “The human cost in their ranks were tremendous. Then the Iraqis told them to retreat and to let the Americans forces in as part of an ambush plan. They complied reluctantly, but when they saw the officers discarding their military outfits for civilian clothes they understood that they were being betrayed so they stuck together and went into Baghdad seeking a way to return home.”

Several similar accounts have been published in the Beirut press.

Natasha Terlexis contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home