Intelligence Briefs: Lebanon

Syria Reinforces Air Defense and Ground Forces in Lebanon

According to sources in Beirut, Syria has established four sophisticated new radar stations in Lebanon since Israel's April 14 air strike on a Syrian radar position in the mountainous Dahr al-Baidar region [see "Sharon Ends Moratorium on Striking Syrian Forces in Lebanon," Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, April 2001]. The first, located at Dayr al-Ashayir along the Lebanese-Syrian border, has a modern guidance system that can supposedly detect aircraft movements in northern Israel. The second radar installation is located in the north Lebanese region of Akkar. The third is located in the Beqaa Valley east of Baalbek. A fourth, located in the mountains of central Lebanon, is mobile and difficult to detect.

Syria is also said to have dispatched an unknown number of experienced, well-trained soldiers to reinforce positions in the Shouf region.

Tlass Insults Spark Rebuttals

In a May 11 interview with Al-Diyar (Beirut), Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass launched a flurry of particularly colorful insults at critics of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, sparking rebuttals from across the Lebanese political spectrum. Tlass said that those in Lebanon demanding the departure of Syrian troops constitute only a 5% minority who "are secretly collaborating with Israel." Tlass accused Maronite Christian Patriarch Boutros Nasrallah Sfeir of approaching the Israelis in 1983 to ask for their intervention in support of Christians after the outbreak of fighting between Druze and Christian militia forces in the Shouf. MP Boutros Harb ridiculed this "frivolous" statement, noting that Sfeir did not become patriarch until 1986.

Tlass also attacked Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who has helped spearhead opposition to Syrian hegemony, saying "we are the ones who invented him." Jumblatt refused to respond to the remarks. Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi, who is a member of Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party, said that it was pointless to debate the allegations of "people who falsify historical facts."

State Dept. Official Dodges Questions on Syrian Occupation

During an April 24 briefing, US State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip T. Reeker was asked if the US government considers Lebanon to be "a free agent and able to enter peace talks" with Israel, a reference to Syria's control over the Lebanese government. Reeker responded vaguely that the US supports the "independence and sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon," leading a reporter to ask pointedly: "Is it the State Department's view that Lebanon should invite the Syrians out?" Again declining to directly answer the question, Reeker replied that the "surest way to accomplish the withdrawal of the Syrian forces from Lebanon is to facilitate a just and lasting, comprehensive Middle East peace."

Reeker's refusal to either call upon Syria to withdraw or call upon the Lebanese regime to request such a withdrawal mirrored statements to this effect by US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Edward Walker during a March 29 hearing of the Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee [see "Congressmen Press Walker on Syrian Occupation," Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, April 2001].

University Merger Proposal Widely Condemned

A cabinet proposal to merge the Beirut and Mount Lebanon branches of the Lebanese University into a single, centralized campus has been widely condemned by students and faculty who accuse the government of launching the initiative in order to supress persistent student demonstrations against the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. The predominantly Christian Mount Lebanon branch has enjoyed considerably more freedom than its counterpart in West Beirut. The fact that a ministerial committee was appointed to plan the merger, rather than academic specialists or university officials, is regarded by many as evidence of Syrian intervention.

"They should know that whatever decisions they take won't affect our plan of action or our struggle for the liberation of our country," Elie Nammour, a literature student at the Mount Lebanon branch, told the Daily Star on May 15. "Such proposals will only serve to give us more strength and power to continue our struggle." Many non-Christian students at other branches of the school are upset by the move as well. "Although we have different political viewpoints, we'll stand by them on this issue because the decision has a political dimension and not an academic one," said Manal Said, a Druze student at the university's southern branch. She condemned the proposal as an attempt to "suppress a specific party, mainly students who oppose the political establishment."

Israel Arrests 2 Former SLA militiamen

According to a Jerusalem Post report on May 8, two former members of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army (militia) were arrested in mid-April by the General Security Service and Israeli police in the Galilee on charges of harming the security of the state by passing information to "hostile elements" in Lebanon. Both were among the thousands of Lebanese who fled to Israel during its withdrawal from south Lebanon in May 2000. An Arab Israeli was also taken into custody. A publicity ban imposed on the case by the Acre Magistrate's Court has only been partially lifted, so further details on the case were unavailable.