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United States, France work together to help Lebanon
France and America showing some positive signs of unity after a period of strain over the war in Iraq, as Lebanon sits in the middle of this union seeking freedom. By JOHN LEICESTER
The Associated Press
PARIS, Feb. 16-- For the United States and France, Lebanon is no Iraq. After clashing over the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein, French and American officials are _ in the words of a French diplomat _ working "hand-in-hand" in the aftermath of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination.
Exiled former army commander Gen. Michel Aoun, a Lebanese Christian, addresses journalists during an interview at his Paris residence Aug. 10, 2001. Aoun, blamed Syria and what he called the feeble regime imposed by Syria for the Monday Feb. 14, 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) In Lebanon, prominent Lebanese exile Gen. Michel Aoun told The Associated Press, France and the United States share "a convergence of interests and a convergence of the heart."
France is closely linked to Lebanon by history, business and even language _ Lebanon hosted a summit of French-speaking nations in 2002. Hariri, a billionaire closely associated with the reconstruction of Lebanon after its 1975-90 civil war, was a friend of French President Jacques Chirac.
"In life, everyone has highs and lows. Well, my dear friend, I remember that your wife and yourself were present in good moments and the difficult hours," Chirac said when presenting Hariri with the Legion of Honor's Grand Cross, France's highest award, in 1996.
The United States, meanwhile, has long been seeking to free Lebanon from the grip of Syria, a country it accuses of funding and helping terrorists.
The United States and France have pressed Syria and the pro-Syrian Lebanese government for the withdrawal of Syria's 15,000 troops from Lebanon. France and the United States sponsored a resolution that the U.N. Security Council passed in September which effectively called on Syria to withdraw its troops and to stop interfering in Lebanese politics.
On Tuesday, France, the United States and other Security Council members were working on a demand that the Lebanese government bring to justice those responsible for Hariri's killing Monday in a bombing in Beirut.
Paris and Washington worked together on drafting a declaration that would ask U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for an investigation into Hariri's death, a French diplomat said.
" France fully supports" the text, a deputy French foreign minister, Renaud Muselier, told parliament.
France wanted to move quickly and expected the declaration to be finalized and adopted Tuesday.
"For us, it is very important that the text can effectively express today and without waiting the unanimity of the international community in condemning this criminal and odious act," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous.
The United States announced Tuesday that it has recalled its ambassador to Syria, saying it reflected the Bush administration's "profound outrage" over Hariri's assassination.
From exile in France, Aoun said that together, France and the United States could exert the clout to get Syria to pull out.
" France is Europe's pilot" in Lebanon, "while the United States is the only world superpower that can change the balance of power in the region," he said in a telephone interview.
But Aoun, who has been living in France since Syrian forces crushed his military campaign against Syria's presence in Lebanon in 1990, also said France and the United States must back up their U.N. resolutions, declarations and gruff statements on Syria with concrete actions.
"If the Syrians are sure than nothing is going to happen to them, they won't react positively," Aoun said. "There are powerful economic and diplomatic methods that could be used. If Syria is isolated diplomatically now, who will it deal with?"
After their bitter argument over Iraq, France and the United States have both seized on Lebanon as an issue to bring them together on problems in the Middle East, said Barah Mikail, an expert at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris.
" France says to itself, 'Since we've had pretty awful relations recently, we need to get closer to the United States. But we clearly showed on Iraq that we opposed the American invasion, so we'll try to get closer through another door in the Middle East,'" he said. " Lebanon is that door."
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Associated Press writer Sophie Tetrel contributed to this report from Paris.
Story Produced by: Jonathan Krotov
