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DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt in Damascus Wednesday, Assad's spokesman said, after Jumblatt vowed to seek the redeployment of Syria's 35,000 troops in Lebanon. This was the Progressive Socialist Party leader's first meeting with Assad since the Lebanese parliamentary elections, which ended earlier this month. "The redeployment of Syrian forces and more balanced economic relations" will be the main points on the agenda," re-elected member of parliament Jumblatt said in remarks published Wednesday by the Lebanese French-language L'Orient-Le Jour. He said "according to the Taef national reconciliation accord [of 1989] the Syrian troops should, for strategic reasons, take up positions [in Lebanon] to defend Syria's flanks against Israel." "Some redeployments should be considered as a relief to the people. In some villages, the deployment [of the Syrian army] is not purely for military objectives," he said, apparently referring to political or intelligence purposes. "Given the good relations between the military institutions of the two countries, some military positions can be handled by the Lebanese army and others by the Syrian army," Jumblatt said. Jumblatt, who has close ties with Syria, recently asked for "more balanced relations" with Damascus. Lebanese-Syrian relations, particularly intelligence affairs, should be dealt with "from government to government," he added. "Intelligence issues should not be dealt with by intelligence agents, but by a political minister who can really establish a distinction between major Syrian strategic interests and Lebanese current affairs while respecting freedoms in Lebanon," he said. Jumblatt however said Lebanon still needed the presence of the Syrian army as a "pressure" tool to "disarm peacefully the Palestinian camps." Guerrillas in the 12 Palestinian refugee camps peppered across Lebanon still carry light weapons, and the Lebanese security and army forces do not have access to the shantytowns, in line with a tacit, Syrian-sponsored agreement. Jumblatt, who scored a major success in recent legislative elections, had complained during the polls of the interference of Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services. Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon, and they are linked at all levels by a 1991 "Treaty of Fraternity, Cooperation and Coordination." |
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