Patrick Seal: Syria Lost Confidence In General Sleiman
Renowned Syria expert and Hafez Assad biographer Patrick Seal believes that Syria no longer trusts General Michel Sleiman to be Lebanon’s president.
In an article that was translated into Arabic in the pan-Arab Alhayat, Mr Seal writes:
A key problem would seem to be that Syria has lost confidence in General Michel Suleiman, the Lebanese army commander who, it was hoped, would be a President acceptable to all sides.
General Suleiman developed close ties with Syria in the 1990s when the Lebanese army was being rebuilt with Syrian help after the civil war. Last year, when Lebanon was battling a violent Islamic faction entrenched in the Palestinian camp of Nahr al-Barid in northern Lebanon, Syria supplied the Lebanese army with much-needed ammunition.
In a word, General Suleiman’s candidacy for the presidency of Lebanon was seen as a concession to Syria. But that was last year. Syria seems no longer to trust him, believing that he has moved into the Saudi/US camp. Another Damascus rumour is that the General paid a recent secret visit to Saudi Arabia, when he is said to have given pledges about his future alignment.
In any event, the General is no puppet, having emerged strengthened from the fierce battles at Nahr al-Barid. If elected, he is likely to be an independent President. This is a risk Syria seems unwilling to take.
If Syria ends up scuttling Mr. Sleiman’s chances, it will mean that Syria’s influence, or as Mr. Seal puts it, its veto power, is more effective than the collective will of all Arab countries.
Is it?
Do you like this post? Would you like to be always updated with new posts on this website? If so, please subscribe to this blog's RSS feed? (tell me more)Share This Post:
Print it: Email it:
-->
Discussion
Comments are disallowed for this post.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.
Latest Posts
Lebanese Bloggers
Middle Eastern Bloggers
Blog Featured In
Today In Lebanon (NOW)
Naharnet RSS Feed
Yalibnan RSS Feed
Latest Lebanese News
RSS Subscribers
Categories
- No categories
It is very obvious that Mr. Sleiman is no longer considered neutral by the opposition as evident by articles started in Al Akhbar and Al Safir by Mr. Ibrahim al Amin and Mr. Imad Mrammel when they shed doubts on his neutrality (they cited the visits he made to Samir Geagea as a clue to him taking sides.) I’m afraid this is right and Mr Suleiman’s candidacy is all but over. Any decent follower of Lebanese politics has found that out since at least last week Mustapha and there has been rumors about new names advancing to the candidacy from both sides. As for your last question, this is not about Syria’s veto power as much as it is about Mr. Sleiman not being politically sly enough to play all sides. He has clearly begun getting too comfortable to his position that he forgot to play the game and now he’s out, baby.
By the way check this news piece from the national press agency
???? ????? ???? ??????? ????? ???????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ????
???? “??????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ??? ??????? ???????? ????????”
????? 25 ????? ?????? 2008
???? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???? ?????, ????????? ???????? ???????.
??????? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ????, ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ??????? ?????? ?? ?????? ????????? ????????? ??????? ???????? ????? ?????????, ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ??????? “??????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ??? ??????? ???????? ????????”.
Tells your something…I don’t think Suleiman can be trusted he’s ambivalent and just is too happy to go to baabda
“If Syria ends up scuttling Mr. Sleiman’s chances, it will mean that Syria’s influence, or as Mr. Seal puts it, its veto power, is more effective than the collective will of all Arab countries.
Is it? ”
Have we seen anything yet that shows differently? Nope, but I think it’s probably more than just “Syria’s Veto Power” – I think a lot of it has to do with the primed and loaded gun that Syria is holding on all of them …. Hezbollah the “Divine Victory” guerrilla force of Iran. It takes a strong military force to control and scare that many people. Hezbollah is that force and they have proven beyond any doubt that they take orders from Iran and from Syria.
I find this to be the most precious bit in his piece:
“If elected, he is likely to be an independent President. This is a risk Syria seems unwilling to take”
Actually, Hizballah did not approve of Suleiman when they met after the March 14 declared that he is their choice. He refused to commit to anything and HA saw it as he is being too independent! They want a puppet president or a president who is independent on HA and Syria. On the Syrian issue, Syria wants the tribunal to disappear and that is their most important goal!
Suleiman isn’t independent. Did we forget all the arguments m14 make against him and how pro syria he was?! just read the news bit i posted above
It cracks me up to hear about this term “neutral president” Syria and its allies are not looking for a neutral president they are looking for a Lahoud clone.
Lost confidence????
This stuff is pure comedy. First off, it’s not Syria’s job to have confidence in the Lebanese president. It should be the Lebanese people who have confidence in our president.
Secondly, OF COURSE Syria has no confidence. They never did. Suleiman was a lackey, a slave. You don’t “have confidence” in slaves. You just expect unquestioning obedience. The moment that stops, you’re not interested in keeping said lackey, and you look to replace him.
Third, Syria wants a political vaccum. They do not want a presidential election. Period. So it’s not a matter of finding a candidate that has Syria’s “confidence”.
Lastly, Patrick Seale is well known for towing the Assad line. I hardly put much stock into his so-called “expert” opinion. More like “expert propagandist”.
English version echo of Mr Trebester’s news piece:
Gen. Michel Suleiman telephoned Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Syrian military command
I had a hard time reading after “A key problem would seem to be that Syria has lost confidence”… Once you accept that conceit, that Syria confidence matters in who gets elected in Lebanon, you are going down a slippery slope.
Maybe someone could sue Patrick Seale and those other idiots like him, have them stripped of their comfy citizenship and just move to Syria and live there. See how they like them apples.
The only “confidence” that matters should be that of the Lebanese people, or in this flawed system of ours, their representatives, such as they are. They have all settled on Suleiman. They should all have him elected, or risk being consumed by the coming fire.
…Because this time, if they make a war, no one will come. At least not unless they block the airport road; then we’ll have to fight our way out of this feudal “karkhana”.
Of course Syria’s influence is greater than the collective will of all of the Arab countries. And Hezbollah is their well trained pit-bull to make sure it stays that way. That Hezbollah has more military power than the Lebanese army is no secret. Why can’t the Lebanese army make the effort to change that imbalance? What the hell is an army for? Internal attacks on an army in any country are treated as treasonable offenses. Gen. Suleiman can definitely serve the country in a position other than President.