February 21, 2009 - Daily Star - Syrian delay in sending envoy worries France

Kouchner rules out compromise on Hariri tribunal

By Nicholas Kimbrell
BEIRUT: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has voiced concern over Syria's delay in sending an ambassador to Lebanon and reaffirmed France's complete commitment to the special international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri.
In a wide-ranging interview published Friday in the pan-Arab daily Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, Kouchner said there would be "no compromise" on the Hariri tribunal, slated to begin in The Hague March 1.
"We have given our full support and actually contributed in funding [the tribunal] from the very first moment. We will make no compromises over the tribunal. [French] President [Nicolas] Sarkozy has said this to Syrian President [Bashar] Assad," Kouchner said.
Hariri was killed by a massive car bomb in Beirut in 2005, and Syria has been widely accused of having a hand in the assassination, which triggered popular demonstrations in Beirut and led to a Syrian withdrawal from its small neighbor after nearly 30 years of political custodianship.
"This is France's stance and we stick to it - we support the tribunal's mission to try the killers of Prime Minister Hariri and his friends," Kouchner said.
He also spoke of a "road map" agreed to by Paris and Damascus, which, according to Kouchner, included a timely exchange of ambassadors.
"I'm sorry that Damascus has not yet sent an ambassador," Kouchner said, "and we've told the Syrians if the delay is for one or two months that is not a big deal, but if the delay means the Syrians want to reconsider all that has been achieved so far this would be a dangerous thing."
Kouchner did, however, note that "a lot of items in this road map have been fulfilled," like the establishment of diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Syria and Lebanese President Michel Sleiman's August visit to Damascus.
Lebanon and Syria established diplomatic relations on October 15, 2008, for the first time in the neighbors' history. Both nations won their independence from France in the 1940s, but from 1976 until Hariri's murder in 2005, Syria acted as Lebanon's political "guardian" and maintained a strong military presence in the country.
As part of the normalization of ties, Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh and his Syrian counterpart Walid Mouallem, agreed to exchange embassy-level mission by the end of the last year.
In late January Lebanese diplomat Michel Khoury was named and approved as Lebanon's ambassador to Syria. But although Syria has opened an embassy in Beirut, an ambassador has yet to be named.
Kouchner called this inaction "unfortunate."
On Wednesday, Syria's Assad said that the decision to send an ambassador to Lebanon was a matter of sovereignty and not subject to the pressure of foreign powers.
"We will not send an ambassador to Lebanon because Britain, France and the United States want us to. This is a sovereign issue. We are not doing it for Europe or for anyone else," he told The Guardian.
Kouchner also warned of the danger of a potential Hizbullah-Israel conflict before Lebanon's parliamentary elections scheduled for June.
Israel waged a month-long war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
In the face of this threat, particularly after the Gaza crisis, Kouchner said he stays in close touch with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and that presidents Sarkozy and Sleiman do the same. Sleiman, he added, would pay a visit to Paris next month.
In addition, the foreign minister noted France's willingness to partake in a broader European Union election monitoring mission to Lebanon, a move a contingent on the approval of the Lebanese cabinet.
Regarding the several challenges facing Lebanon in the coming months, including the tribunal and the polls, Kouchner sounded a hopeful tone.
"There are constant dangers surrounding the Lebanese but they have always succeeded in overcoming those threats," he said. "And we hope that they will succeed once more."