About the assassination of Hariri [Archives:2005/825/Opinion]
Barkatullah Marwat
Kuwait
[email protected]
For the Yemen Times
The assassination of ex-premier of Lebanon, Rafik Al Hariri, is certainly another sad development amid the peace process going on between Israel and Palestine. The incident raised several questions as to who is behind it. Is it Syria, or the unidentified militant group claiming to kill him and/or US? At the moment it is too early to establish an opinion who killed him. But keeping in view the similar incidents happened in the history of Lebanon as well as the current situations developing from the tug-of-war between Syria and US, one's mind goes to the fact that the involvement of US in the incident can hardly be ruled out. It's so because it's US that has been asking Syria to surrender willingly to certain conditions and demands. Let's take a look at those demands for which Syria is being pressurised;
1. Giving a clean certificate to US that Syria is not possessing or developing any such weapons like Iran and North Korea have done,
2. Syria was accused of having allowed a safe passage of the militants into Iraq through its porous border,
3. Syria is accused to having harboured those militants who are wanted by US,
4. Syria is threatened to withdraw its troops [about 14,500 stationed in Lebanon] from Lebanon.
Maybe some more demands will be there, which have not yet come to light, but the apparent ones I just mentioned above.
So one is made to think about why US has voiced so angrily that whoever killed the ex-premier will be punished severely. I smell something different in this context, the involvement of US cannot be ruled out as she might have been trying to justify her impending attack on Syria, and that is another point she will not lose to score by diverting fingers towards Syria for the assassination.
Let's not forget that Syria is the second Muslim country after Iran that is considered to be a major threat to the US blue-eyed boy [Israel].
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[archive-e:825-v:13-y:2005-d:2005-03-17-p:opinion]
