Last update - 00:00 24/12/2007
Damascus: Bush trying to push Lebanon into Iraq-like crisis
By The Associated Press
U.S. President George W. Bush's remarks last week that he has lost patience with the Syrian leader are "arrogant and bode ill" for the region, a Syrian newspaper said Monday, adding that the U.S. administration was attempting to push Lebanon into a crisis like in Iraq and Afghanistan.
An editorial in the state Tishrin daily, which reflects government thinking, said Bush's statements demonstrate that his administration is determined to end its term as it started, with "aggression, occupation and power."
Bush, at a press conference on Thursday, criticized Syrian President Bashar Assad and called on him to stop interfering in Lebanese politics.
"My patience ran out on President Assad a long time ago, Bush said. And the reason why is, is because he houses Hamas, he facilitates Hezbollah, suiciders go from his country to Iraq, and he destabilizes Lebanon," Bush said.
"Syria needs to let the process in Lebanon work," Bush added, sharply rejecting any dialogue with the Syrian president.
Relations between Syria and the United States had appeared to warm briefly, following Syria's attendance of last month's Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
But both sides have since lashed out at one another, each accusing the other of meddling in Lebanese affairs.
Lebanon is going through its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war and has been without a president since Nov. 23.
Tishrin said Bush's statements underline the defeats that his administration has suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his failures to deal with the Lebanese crisis and Iran's controversial nuclear case.
"These arrogant and threatening statements point to more defeats by the Bush administration than anything else," the newspaper said. "They do not bode well for any rational U.S. policy or serious intention to handle the region's issues."
The newspaper accused Bush of seeking to push Lebanon toward anarchy, similar to Iraq and Afghanistan and claimed the American leader was determined to give Israel more support than it has gotten from any previous (U.S.) administration.
In Lebanon, the pro-Syria, Hezbollah-led oppositions has boycotted a parliament vote to elect the country's next president, plunging Damascus' neighbor into a political vacuum.
The Western-backed, anti-Syrian bloc has avoided trying to use its slim majority in parliament to elect a president, which would escalate tensions with the opposition.
But Bush in his speech Thursday for the first time urged Lebanon's anti-Syrian lawmakers to push through their own choice for president if necessary, to resolve a long political deadlock.
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