| New York Times | - |
AMMAN,
Jordan - Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that the United
States was increasingly concerned that the escalating fighting in Syria might slip across the border with Lebanon and destabilize that country.
U.S. Fears the Fighting in Syria Might Spill Over Into Lebanon, Kerry Says
Pool photo by Jim Young
Secretary of State John Kerry
met with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Amman on Wednesday. Mr. Kerry
said Lebanon was “at risk” of being swept up in the Syrian civil war.
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK LANDLER
Published: May 22, 2013
AMMAN, Jordan — Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that the United States was increasingly concerned that the escalating fighting in Syria might slip across the border with Lebanon and destabilize that country.
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“We’re deeply concerned about this spilling over into Lebanon,” said Mr.
Kerry, who came to Jordan to attend an 11-country meeting on the
deteriorating situation in Syria.
Lebanon, Mr. Kerry added pointedly, is “at risk.”
The decision by Hezbollah,
the Lebanese militia and Iranian ally, to join the battle for the
strategic city of Qusayr in Syria, and the prospect that the Syrian
rebels might respond by carrying the fight to Hezbollah operatives in
Lebanon, has alarmed the Obama administration.
Mr. Kerry said that several thousand Hezbollah members were operating in
Syria. Members of Iran’s paramilitary Quds force and Iraqi Shiite
militia members, some of whom have been encouraged by Iran to fight in
support of the government of Bashar al-Assad, are also in Syria, other
American officials said, who like several other United States officials
quoted spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The White House has been increasingly concerned that the fierce fighting
in Qusayr and the sectarian violence in the northern Lebanese city of
Tripoli will lead to a wider regional conflict.
President Obama called the president of Lebanon, Michel Suleiman, on
Monday to urge the Lebanese armed forces to prevent the flow of
Hezbollah fighters and weapons across the border into Syria. But Mr.
Suleiman, a Christian, has little influence over Hezbollah and its
fighters.
“We don’t want to see any escalation or spread of this war to Lebanon,”
said a senior Obama administration official. “Lebanon is facing enough
challenges with nearly 500,000 official refugees and nearly one million
Syrians in a country of four million. The last thing it needs is
sectarian violence in Lebanon itself.”
Americans officials have also conveyed their worries to the Supreme
Military Council or S.M.C., the military wing of the Syrian opposition
that is led by Gen. Salim Idris, and urged it not to chase fighters
across the border into Lebanon.
“We will continue to urge them not to get involved in Lebanon, but the
pressures are there, and even beyond the S.M.C. itself, there are Sunnis
and Syrians who might not abide by that,” the senior administration
official said.
He added that the United States might condition its promise of increased
nonlethal aid to the rebels on their willingness not to strike in
Lebanon.
While the United States may have leverage with General Idris, it has no
ability to control some jihadists — like the Nusra Front, which is also
fighting Syrian government forces.
A senior State Department official in Amman said that Syrian opposition
commanders in the Homs area had reported that arms and other military
supplies had been making their way to Hezbollah operatives in Syria from
Lebanon’s Bekaa area.
“We have said that we need to keep Lebanon out of this and we need to
find ways to stop the flow coming out of Lebanon,” the State Department
official told reporters here, reprising the United States message to the
Syrian opposition.
General Idris grew up in a village near Qusayr, making the battle there a personal matter.
“They are invaders. They are dogs acting like beasts,” he said in an
interview, referring bitterly to the Hezbollah fighters. “I swear to
god, Hassan Nasrallah will pay the price,” General Idris added,
referring to the Hezbollah leader.
But General Idris also asserted that the rebels did not want to impinge on Lebanon’s sovereignty.
The concern over Lebanon was just one issue at the meeting here that
brought together foreign ministers and leading members of the Syrian
opposition.
The main point of the meeting was to set the stage for an expected
international conference in Geneva next month that is intended to
facilitate negotiations between the Assad government and the Syrian
opposition over the possible establishment of a transitional government.
A number of outstanding issues remain, including who in the Syrian
opposition might be willing attend and Iran’s role in any future
diplomatic discussions.
The planning for the Geneva meeting also comes as the Assad government
has been making gains on the battlefield and the leverage of the United
States and its partners to induce Mr. Assad to vacate his post appears
to have declined.
“Yeah, he’s made a few gains in the last days,” Mr. Kerry said during
his news conference, referring to Mr. Assad. “But this has gone up and
down in a seesaw.”
Mr. Kerry asserted that any progress the Syrian government had made in
the war would prove to be ephemeral. He warned that the United States
and its partners were prepared to increase support for the Syrian
opposition if Mr. Assad refused to negotiate an end to his rule and
agree to the establishment of a transitional government.
If Mr. Assad is not prepared to negotiate in “good faith,” Mr. Kerry
said, “we will also talk about our continued support and growing support
for the opposition in order to permit them to continue to be able to
fight for the freedom of their country.”
It remains unclear whether that warning will register with Mr. Assad. It
took two months for the United States to send the food rations and
medical kits to the opposition that it promised in late February. And
the Obama administration has not yet sent the additional nonlethal aid
to the opposition that Mr. Kerry said in late April would be
forthcoming.
At the same time, Russia has been providing the Assad government with
arms, as has Iran, according to American officials.
At the 11-country meeting, General Idris briefed the delegates on the
military situation. George Sabra, the acting head of the Syrian
opposition, also attended. The Syrian opposition is in the process of
picking new leaders and that has slowed its decisions on who from its
ranks might attend the Geneva session.
A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting in Amman stressed the need
for political negotiations at the Geneva meeting and promised
“additional support” to the armed wing of the opposition. It also called
for the immediate withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters, and fighters from
Iran and other foreign countries.
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