Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05BEIRUT767
2005-03-09 16:43:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beirut
Cable title:  

MGLE01: PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER BERRI SEES SYRIANS

Tags:  PGOV KDEM PTER SY LE 
pdf how-to read a cable
P 091643Z MAR 05
FM AMEMBASSY BEIRUT
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6689
INFO ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
AMEMBASSY VATICAN CITY VT 
HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCJ5//
C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIRUT 000767 


E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2015
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PTER SY LE
SUBJECT: MGLE01: PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER BERRI SEES SYRIANS
ON THEIR WAY OUT FAST, BUT FEARS DELAY IN ELECTIONS

Classified By: Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIRUT 000767


E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2015
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PTER SY LE
SUBJECT: MGLE01: PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER BERRI SEES SYRIANS
ON THEIR WAY OUT FAST, BUT FEARS DELAY IN ELECTIONS

Classified By: Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and
leader of the Shia Amal Movement, assured the Ambassador that
Syrian forces would redeploy to the Biqa' Valley in short
order and complete their withdrawal to Syria within months.
Looking on the bright side, Berri claimed that Syria's
departure will give its Lebanese allies more freedom of
maneuver. On the other hand, he gloomily conceded that his
Amal Movement's rival for leadership of Lebanon's Shia
community, Hizballah, may well steal the show (as Hizballah
did later that same day, March 8, in a huge downtown rally).
Berri is emphatically for a strong "national unity
government," and frustrated by the opposition's lack of
interest in joining. Any further delay in forming a
government makes a delay of parliamentary elections almost
certain, Berri said. End summary.

--------------
Syrian withdrawal -- they mean it, Berri says
--------------


2. (C) Berri was laconic at first when called on by the
Ambassador and poloff on March 8 at Berri's Beirut residence.
The Ambassador asked about the March 7 meeting in Damascus
between Syrian President Asad and Lebanese President Lahoud,
whom Berri accompanied. "Good, no problem," Berri replied,
turning away to stare at a point in space, lips pursed, hands
clasped over his knee. Was he confident the Syrians would
commit to full withdrawal? "No problem," Berri repeated,
pronouncing the two words slowly and exactly.


3. (C) "I'm sure of one thing," Berri told the Ambassador.
That is that Syria will redeploy its forces to the Biqa'
Valley, starting possibly as soon as March 9. Following
that, UN Special Envoy Terje-Roed Larsen would return to the
region and arrive at a "more than positive solution" for full
Syrian withdrawal.


4. (C) Berri expressed frustration with criticism made by
Lebanese oppositionists, among others, of the results of the
March 7 Damascus meeting, particularly the fact that it did
not announce a timetable for full withdrawal. The plan
agreed on by Asad and Lahoud would apply the Ta'if Agreement

"exactly," and "in the way of (UNSCR) 1559" (which Berri
admitted he opposed, but "in a democratic way"). All
Roed-Larsen had to do was arrange a "marriage" between the
Ta'if Agreement and UNSCR 1559, and then he could extract a
timetable from the Syrians.


5. (C) Berri expressed certainty not only that Syrian forces
would redeploy to the Biqa' quickly, but also that they would
start to withdraw across the Syrian border before April.
Full withdrawal would be completed not within a year, but
within months. Queried by the Ambassador, Berri said that
all Syrian intelligence personnel would be withdrawn as well.


6. (C) Berri insisted that this was not a matter of all talk
and no action. President Asad had made clear his intent
about complying with UNSCR 1559. The SARG would obey any
demands made on it by Roed-Larsen's forthcoming report. The
reason the SARG was so intent on full withdrawal was that it
did not want to be responsible for implementation of the
other provisions of UNSCR 1559, such as disarmament and
disbandment of militias.


7. (C) Berri said that, faced with the disarmament of
Hizballah, Asad could say it was "not my business." Also,
the SARG wanted to be able to claim credit for implementing
UNSCR 1559. That way, it could make a stronger case for
implementation of other Security Council resolutions dealing
with the Middle East.

--------------
With Syria leaving, it's Nasrallah's show
--------------


8. (C) Asked by the Ambassador about the massive rally in
central Beirut being organized at that moment by Hizballah,
Berri gloomily said of his rival for leadership of the Shia
community, Hizballah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, that
"it is his case now." With the Syrians withdrawing from
Lebanon, Nasrallah had "come to the front." No one could
claim that the rally was a "Syrian project," claimed Berri.


9. (C) Berri said he was trying hard to keep people "off the
streets" and minimize the possibility of violence in the
current tense atmosphere. He noted reports of violent
incidents following Asad's March 5 speech, provoked by
individuals in vehicles flying flags of Berri's Amal Movement
and driving through pro-opposition neighborhoods. None of
the perpetrators were Amal members, he said -- in one case,
they had been Palestinians. "Many people want to make
trouble," he said. Lebanon was not united, it had too many
sects, it was -- in a negative metaphor increasingly favored
by loyalists -- "not Ukraine."


10. (C) The Ambassador suggested that it was a positive sign
that Lebanese, whether opposition or loyalist, were all
marching under the same flag, the Lebanese national flag.
Their confessional identify was not determining their stance
on the question of the Syrian presence. Berri, still gloomy,
answered that it was "apparently" good for the Lebanese to be
under one flag. The problem was that "everyone sees their
own color in the flag." The Lebanese remained "a divided
people."


11. (C) Perhaps indicative of his bad mood, Berri proceeded
to instruct the Ambassador on points that, while arguably
true, were irrelevant. If Hariri had not been assassinated,
Berri asserted, the Sunni community would not have joined the
opposition. If the Syrians are proven innocent of Hariri's
assassination, the Sunnis will "change in one day." Druze
leader Walid Jumblatt subscribes to the Ta'if Agreement but
not UNSCR 1559; he is therefore in favor of the Syrians
remaining in the Biqa' Valley (comment: while the first
point is true, the second is clearly not).

--------------
Politics without Syria
--------------


12. (C) With the Syrians gone, Berri claimed, Syria's
Lebanese allies would be more free to do what they want. For
example, Berri expected more elements on the loyalist side
(Hizballah, President Lahoud) to move closer to his original
position on the electoral law. That is, they would support
large electoral districts drawn along the lines of the
"mohafazah" administrative unit, rather than the smaller
"qada." Berri himself had supported the "qada" plan only
because of Syrian pressure to go along with a supposed deal
between Damascus and the Maronite Patriarch.


13. (C) Another example: Berri and his Amal Movement could
now take full credit from their constituents in return for
largesse. Previously, they had often faced constituents
suspicious that the real donor of state-funded projects and
services was "the ally," i.e., Damascus, not Berri and Amal.
"We (the Amal Movement) paid the price sometimes!"

--------------
Forming a new government...
--------------


14. (C) Berri told the Ambassador that a strong government,
a "national unity government," was needed in the aftermath of
the Karami government's February 28 resignation. Only a
strong government could handle the several "big issues" that
any successor to Karami's government would face: the
investigation of Hariri's assassination, Syrian withdrawal,
and the new electoral law. He joked that, in response to
opposition demands, he had tried to look up the term "neutral
government" in "my dictionary of Lebanese politics." It
didn't exist.


15. (C) Berri expected 'Umar Karami to come back as Prime
Minister in the next government. The list of viable
candidates to fill the post was short: Karami, Salim
al-Hoss, Fouad Siniora, and Adnan Kassar. Berri opposed
naming an anti-Hariri figure, so that ruled out Hoss. On the
other hand, Hariri supporters did not want Siniora or Kassar
elevated to the position. That left Karami. Berri believed
Karami would be a good choice; if brought back, Karami would
"try to make it work."


16. (C) Berri said he wanted the opposition to join the new
cabinet. They were making a serious mistake if they held
back. There was a precedent for effective national unity
governments in Lebanon, such as the one that brought
civil-war-era leaders on both sides of the East Beirut-West
Beirut divide into the same cabinet in 1984 (comment: a grim
precedent).


17. (C) Berri claimed to be puzzled by the opposition's
demand that seven security service heads be dismissed before
the opposition would consider joining a new government. The
Ambassador said that the opposition was arguing that there
was no sense in joining a cabinet when the real power
remained in the hands of unaccountable security chiefs.
Based on our conversations with the opposition, however, it
seems that the opposition might be willing to bargain to an
extent, perhaps agreeing to let the other chiefs remain in
place for the time being in return for the immediate
dismissal of Internal Security Force Director General Ali
al-Hajj. "Why the innocent one and not the guilty one?"
Berri asked, without clarification (but presumably in
reference to fellow Shia Jamil al-Sayyed, whom Berri detests
-- and the feeling is mutual).


18. (C) Berri fretted about the confessional complications
that would come into play with the dismissal of any or all of
the security service chiefs. Anyway, the cabinet would have
to name a replacement for any dismissed security service
chief -- why did the opposition not want to be in the cabinet
and influence the decision?

--------------
... and holding elections on time
--------------


19. (C) Berri told the Ambassador that the consultations for
designating a new Prime Minister and forming a cabinet could
easily take a week. A genuine "national unity government"
could take even longer to form. Then there was the matter of
the election law, and parliamentary elections cannot begin
less than one month after the law enters into effect.


20. (C) Berri said that, until now, plans to hold elections
on schedule in May have remained in the realm of feasibility.
Any further delay would put these plans in jeopardy,
however. The Ambassador told Berri that a genuinely strong
government cannot be formed until after elections, so they
need to remain on schedule.

--------------
Comment
--------------


21. (C) The massive demonstration in central Beirut on the
afternoon of March 8 appeared to vindicate Berri's fears
about being left behind, coughing in Hizballah's dust on a
post-Syrian Lebanese political landscape. Some of the
concerns he tried to raise and link with Syrian withdrawal --
Hizballah ascendancy, civil disorder, pro-Syrian elements
having an even freer hand -- sounded a little disingenuous,
given that the Syrians still have yet to leave.


FELTMAN