Condolleeza Rice, Nicolas Sarkozi & the United Nations are all talking about supporting Lebanon. Do their actions measure up?
It seems natural for Prime Minister Seniora to feel all puffed up after meeting the American Secretary of State Condi Rice and having launch with the new French President Mr. Sarkozy. After all, it never hurts to hear that the international community “reiterates its support” (can you remember how many time you heard that expression before?) for the legitimate Lebanese Government.
Paris was also good politically for March14. Alhayat reported yesterday that Dr. Rice convinced Mr. Sarkozy to remain close to March14 and and stop treating all the Lebanese parties as equal. That lead to Sanioura’s comments which underplayed the significance of the Paris meeting between the Lebanese groups scheduled for mid-July. Ms Rice also convinced the French President of hardening France’s policy on Damascus.
The United Nation is also talking of “upgrading” the Lebanese border security system by spreading “international experts” along the borders.
Yet as much as support is important, the United Nations (or the French and Americans for the matter) have not mentioned any action to be taken in case Syria was offended by those experts and completely shut down the Lebanese-Syrian border.
The Lebanese Government and the International community could do well by lobbying the Turks, the Iraqis and the Jordanians to credibly threaten closing their borders with Syria in case Syria takes that road. The World Trade Organization should also be involved in warning Syria from cutting off a member country.
Those are all areas where the muscles of the International community could really come in Handy..
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005.
I think working with Turkey, Jordan and Iraq is a real great idea! I don’t know how much Lebanon has leverage with these countries. I know Jordan may agree but I doubt that Turkey will do that. Turkey is selling its products in Syria and few products go the other way. Iraq is a hapless case!
I think Jordan has a great effect on Syria. Most (sorry all) Arab tourists from the Gulf (who travel by land) go through Jordan to Syria. Closing the border between Jordan and Syria will not allow the tourists to go to Syria (Syria always closes the border just at the beginning of the tourist/summer season to prevent the tourist to go to Lebanon so tey will spend their time in Syria) and will keep customers from going to Syria to buy cheaper products!
World Trade Organization? When did we become a member? An if we were, the WTO can’t do anything to Syria because its not a member.
The Jordanians may be ameanable to closing the border (maybe if the americans promise to compensate them for any losses) and the Saudi’s who are one of Syria’s big export destinations may do something about lorries arriving via Jordan. I seriously doubt you can get the Turks to close the border, they just signed some sort of trade treaty with the Syrians and are going to put themselves first, not us. As for Iraqies, well, they have their own problems to deal with (and a huge number of refugees in syria), Lebanon is the least of their worries.
When you start thinking that you are as big as America and can influence international foreign policies, this is when I realize that you and your likes are losing your foresight and also your minds.
When Lebanon Invents – Lebanon will succeed and wont need anyone proping her up.
Stop worrying about “politics” and become like Japan
look -
http://www.israel21c.com
Ghassan, I think this is potentially a golden opportunity for Turkey to prove its mettle if it’s still intent on joining –and/or being accepted in– the EU.
for the rest and the worries about Syria getting “offended by those experts and completely shut[ing] down the Lebanese-Syrian border..” well, good bye and good riddance. as we say in Lebanese l-béb l-byijiik minno rii7, siddo w strii7″. Let them shut down the freagin border, we’ve been nothing but grief from that shit-hole. It’s about TIME to close it off and look for alternative inlets… How ’bout harking back to some good ole Lebanese ingenuity instead of moaning and groaning.
btw i completely agree with the zionist; ma bi 7ikk jildak illa difrak!
I think if the EU promises Turkey something, Turkey will close the border!
Last year, Sa3ed Harriri suggested to some merchants to use airplanes to pass their goods to the gulf!
You guys are nuts if you expect any of those countries to accept losing even one dollar for us.
Yeah, I do tend to agree that lebanon has a lot of leverage to build before being capable of lobbying effectively,
Jad,
You’re right, it seems that we’re not yet members although we applied in 1999. The good news is that we have now moved to the “draft report” status…
Lebanessa and Ghassan, I don’t much share your optimism regarding Jordan’s cooperation. The questions to ask are: “what do they get out of it?” and “is it worth the damage?”
Zionist and noel,
Yeah, we could use a no-politics period of pure economic development to be able to eventually have our own backbone.
But I think that’s a tricky proposition. It took billions of dollars of US aide to Israel to build their high-tech industries. Also, look at the UAE who’s following that strategy. The Iranians bully them every once in a while. Brute force also does count.
Bad V.
I hear you..