Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.
 

Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.
A land grab proportionally equivalent to a foreign power occupying Arizona.

BY BRET STEPHENS
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

As of this minute, Syria occupies at least 177 square miles of Lebanese soil. That you are now reading about it for the first time is as much a scandal as the occupation itself.

The news comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border just produced by the International Lebanese Committee for U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the U.N. Because of the sensitivity of the subject, the authors have requested anonymity and have circulated the report only among select government officials and journalists. But its findings cannot be ignored.

In meticulous detail--supplemented by photographs, satellite images, archival material and Lebanese military maps predating Syria's 1976 invasion (used as a basis of comparison with Syria's current positions)--the authors describe precisely where and how Lebanon has been infiltrated. In the area of the village of Maarboun, for instance, the authors observed Syrian military checkpoints a mile inside Lebanon. In the Birak al-Rassass Valley, they photographed Syrian anti-aircraft batteries. On the outskirts of the village of Kossaya they found a heavily fortified camp belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in violation of U.N. resolutions and Lebanese demands.

This is a story to which I can contribute my own testimony. In May 2005 I paid a visit to Lebanon, just a month after Syria had announced that it had fully withdrawn its 14,000 troops from Lebanon in compliance with Resolution 1559. The rumor in Beirut was that a company of 200 or so elite Syrian soldiers remained encamped within Lebanon near the Druze village of Deir al-Ashaer. I decided to have a look. After a long drive over rutted roads, I found it.

Or rather, what I found was a hillside outpost that I was able to enter without crossing any apparent international border. The man in charge was a Syrian intelligence officer who "invited" me into a sweltering tent while he phoned his commanders for instruction. After a few tense minutes of silence with the soldiers inside, the officer reappeared, explained that the camp was 50 yards inside Syrian territory, and ordered me to go. From there I went to the village, where the mayor insisted the camp was several hundred yards inside Lebanon.

Who was right? Inclined as I was to believe the mayor, it was hard to sort out contending claims over remote parcels of land. A week later, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the U.N. had "verified all [Syrian military units] had withdrawn, including [from] the border area." It seemed that was the end of the story.

I should have known then that anything "verified" by the U.N. must be checked at least twice. I should have known, too, that anything to which Mr. Annan devoted his personal attention would inevitably become worse. Last September, Mr. Annan paid a visit to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad after the latter had declared he would treat any attempt by the U.N. to deploy peacekeepers along the Lebanese-Syrian border as a "hostile act." To defuse the impasse, Mr. Annan simply accepted Mr. Assad's assurances that Syria would police its border and prevent arms smuggling. "I think it can happen," said the diplomat at a press conference. "It may not be 100%, but it will make quite a lot of difference if the government puts in place the measures the government has discussed with me."

What happened, predictably, was the opposite. In May, Fatah al-Islam, a terrorist group whose leadership was imported from Damascus, attacked Lebanese army outposts outside the Palestinian refugee camps of Nahr El-Bared and Biddawi, causing a bloody standoff that continues till this day. In June, current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a report citing numerous instances of arms smuggling from Syria to Hezbollah and the PFLP. Yesterday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted that he once again has missiles that can reach Tel Aviv--missiles he could only have obtained via Syria. Israel confirms his claims.


Mr. Ban's report is notable for its clarity and seriousness. Taken together with the border report, it paints an alarming picture. Though the land grabs are small affairs individually, they collectively add up to an area amounting to about 4% of Lebanese soil--in U.S. terms, the proportional equivalent of Arizona. Of particular note is that the area of Syrian conquest dwarves that of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms. The farms, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and which amount to an area of about 12 square miles, are claimed by Hezbollah as belonging to Lebanon--a useful pretext for it to continue its "resistance" against an Israeli occupation that ended seven years ago.

Needless to say, Hezbollah--which purports to fight for Lebanese sovereignty--makes no similar claims against Syria. For his part, Mr. Assad refuses to agree to a demarcation of his border with Lebanon, just as he refuses to open an embassy in Beirut. The ambiguity serves him well: He can seize Lebanese territory without anyone appearing to take notice, supply terrorist camps without quite harboring the terrorists, and funnel arms to Hezbollah at will--all without abandoning the fantasy of "Greater Syria" encompassing Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Israel itself.


It would, of course, be nice to see the Arab world protest this case of illegal occupation, given its passions about the subject. It would also be nice to see the media report this story as sedulously as it has the controversy of the Shebaa Farms. Don't hold your breath on either score. In the meantime, the only countries in a position to help Lebanon are France and the U.S. They could strike a useful blow by closing their embassies in Damascus until such time as Damascus opens an embassy--with all that it implies--in Beirut.

Mr. Stephens is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. His column appears in the Journal Tuesdays.


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This article is a news article followed by author comments. I would like everyone to comment on the news and if they want the opinion, not just the opinion.

Re: Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.
 

first of all , there is no such country called : Israel
i believe that Palastine is still there

second : seek our borders in Shib3a ya m3allim and then you seek them near Syria

third : some people live in lebanon while they work in syria ! and the greatest gov on the planet does nothing about them ! i think those people are from Neptun and dont deserve to have all rights in living in lebanon .
have you asked yourself why ?
i am talking specialy about those where the arrow points




you believe in 10452 km2 ? we cant take them without having Shib3a farms and the tops of its mountains .
go check the borders and ask France ( the sweet mom ) why it hides our maps .

Re: Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.
 

Oh really ?! Syria occupying us again ? :o asslan Syria didn't left Lebanon since its students Sanyoura,Jumblat and some puppets are still ruling the country !
and even if this article is true,why are you nagging ? go and tell ur Government,your Heroes,your Freedom Fighters to go and fight Syria and push her back...aren't you always saying that the Army must protect the borders ? why the Lebanese Army don't do its normal job and defend the Lebanese borders if this story was true ? O_o

Re: Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.
 

El-Meghwar please check and see who are the puppets now and who's defending Syria now.
Yes, Jumblat and many others WERE the puppets of Syria but what are they doing now that proves they're still puppets?
Why is Sheb3a more important than other occupied land by Syria??
Why isn't GMA demanding the release of the lebanese prisoners in the syrian prisons!? He should be the first one to speak about them since they were his soldiers but instead he goes and says there are no prisoners!!! this is really shameful

Re: Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.
 

Tiger,
The Lebanese Army men who got captured by the bloody assad were the Lebanese Army men not aoun's men... that's 1st...

2nd, in the paper between FPM and Hezbollah, the deal was Hezbolla will take care of this issue... Sanioura came and said: I'll take care of this issue :) and he ruined everything...

Finally, the Lebanese in syria are for all Lebanon, no one spoke about them during the syrian occupation... review Solide's and Solida's reports my friend you'll understand what I'm talking about...

Re: Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.
 

1st when GMA wil be the goverment he will talk about lebanese in syria jail but now i want to know why u donèt give GMA the goverment then u will ask him about borders or prisoners or anything .
i want to ask the goverment she see syria taking our land why she doesn't act . israel is entering with her planes every day and nobody care i want to ask this goverment if a plane from syria enter lebanon now what will happen u we will see all the goverment talking about why ???
the goverment should respect the people and protect them against israel or syria but we can't talk from one side .

Re: Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.
 

I don't see anyone defending Syria right now,but i see that the same syrian policy of the last 15 years still exists nowadays thanks to the syrian policy students who are still ruling the country ;)
Being a traitor,a thief and a criminal for one day is enough to be thrown in a jail,how about15-30 years ?? 2 or 10 years of (patriotism) won't cancel the old crimes.asslan the crimes didn't stop,those traitors just changed their loyalty from Syria to the U.S.A ..they WERE and STILL puppets.
who said that chebaa is more important than any other Lebanese land ? :crazy: ... you are saying that the lebanese army should protect the borders so that's why this government sent him to the south.now if u are claiming that Syria is occupying some parts of the Lebanese lands why this government doesent send the Lebanese Army there to defend Lebanon and liberate this land ???

Re: Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.