Another Domino Goes Down
February 28, 2005 | Leave a Comment
BEIRUT, Lebanon Feb 28, 2005 — With shouts of “Syria out!” 25,000 protesters massed outside Parliament in a dramatic display of defiance Monday that forced out Lebanon’s pro-Syrian prime minister and Cabinet.
Minutes after Prime Minister Omar Karami announced he was stepping down, jubilant demonstrators shouting, waving flags and handing red roses to soldiers demanded that Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud bow out, too, and pressed on with their calls for Syria to withdraw its troops from the country.
Syria remained silent about the rapidly changing atmosphere in Beirut, where Damascus ruled unopposed for years, even deciding on the Lebanon’s leaders.
But the dramatic developments reminiscent of Ukraine’s peaceful “orange revolution” and broadcast live across the Arab world could provoke a strong response from Syria, which keeps 15,000 troops in Lebanon. It also could plunge this nation of 3.5 million back into a period of uncertainty, political vacuum or worse.
Like their counterparts in Ukraine, the Lebanese demonstrators took their ground and held it they planned to stay in Martyrs’ Square again Monday night. And like Ukraine, their movement had trademark colors: the bright red and white of the Lebanese flag, waved high in the air and worn as a scarf.
The White House welcomed Karami’s resignation, saying it opens the door for new elections that are “free of all foreign interference” from Syria, but called again on Damascus to pull out its soldiers.
“Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel need to leave the country,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. “That will help ensure that elections are free and fair.”
In one sign Syria has no intention of just packing up and leaving, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in remarks published Monday that there will be a price for Syrian troop withdrawal: a settlement with Israel.
“Under a technical point of view, the withdrawal can happen by the end of the year,” Assad told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “But under a strategic point of view, it will only happen if we obtain serious guarantees. In one word: peace.”
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