FREE MINDS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Here is my latest from the Lebanon section of the Daily Star. It argues that Syria must do several things if it wants to come of out the coming months unscathed by the U.S.:

(1) Avoid destabilizing Lebanon by turning it into a relay station for messages directed at Washington; (2) once the Iraq war ends, begin discussing with the Lebanese a new relationship that both sides find acceptable (by which I mainly mean the Syrian government and a majority of the Lebanese people) and that puts an end to Syria's unhealthy militarily-backed domination over the Lebanon; and (3) open up Syrian society politically and economically, as Syrian president Bashar Asad sort of promised two years ago.

Any chance of this happening? I'm afraid regimes that side with Saddam on the eve of his demise are not always the best judges of what is in their interests.

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