Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BEIRUT1775
2006-06-05 15:41:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beirut
Cable title:  

MGLE01: KARAME RALLY REVEALS OPENING OF A NEW/OLD

Tags:  KDEM PGOV PTER SY LE 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO8148
PP RUEHAG RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK
DE RUEHLB #1775 1561541
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 051541Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIRUT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3837
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIRUT 001775 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NSC FOR ABRAMS/WERNER/DORAN/SINGH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2016
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PTER SY LE
SUBJECT: MGLE01: KARAME RALLY REVEALS OPENING OF A NEW/OLD
ANTI-GOVERNMENT FRONT IN LEBANON

Classified By: Jeffrey Feltman, Ambassador. Reason: Section 1.4 (b).

C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIRUT 001775

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NSC FOR ABRAMS/WERNER/DORAN/SINGH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2016
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PTER SY LE
SUBJECT: MGLE01: KARAME RALLY REVEALS OPENING OF A NEW/OLD
ANTI-GOVERNMENT FRONT IN LEBANON

Classified By: Jeffrey Feltman, Ambassador. Reason: Section 1.4 (b).


1. (SBU) Summary: On June 3, a political gauntlet was
thrown down during a rally marking the anniversary of the
1987 death of a prominent Sunni figure in northern Lebanon.
Omar Karame, former Prime minister and friend to Syria, was
joined by several ex-deputies, and followers of anti-Hariri
forces, in commemorating the assassination of his brother
Rashid. The rally, in the Karame home town of Tripoli, moved
quickly from a solemn memorial to vehement attacks on the
government and especially the March 14 politician Samir
Ja'ja'. End Summary.


2. (C) Two traditional leaders of northern Lebanon, Omar
Karame and Suleiman Franjieh, came together this weekend to
mark the 1987 death of Karame's brother, Prime Minister
Rashid Karame. Rashid Karame was killed by a bomb planted in
his official helicopter. The act has been attributed to the
Lebanese Forces/Phalange movement leaders, headed by Samir
Ja'ja'. Karame has been consistent in his condemnation of
Ja'ja', objecting to the Christian militia leader's release
from prison in 2005. At the ceremonies for his brother,
Karame again took on this issue, calling Ja'ja's government
pardon invalid and demanding justice for his brother.


3. (SBU) Karame was joined at the June 3 rally by a
collection of Lebanese who have come to represent those still
loyal to Syria and opposed to the Siniora government. Among
those present were Mohamed Raad, of Hizballah; Talal Arslan,
Walid Jumblatt's less powerful competitor for Druze power;
Elie Ferzli, frequent apologist for Syria; and Suleiman
Franjieh, powerful northern Christian who blames Ja'ja' for
the civil war era murders of his family. MP Abbas Hashem
represented Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic movement. Aoun
himself did not attend. Some ten thousand supporters
surrounded the leadership of the anti-Hariri forces.


4. (SBU) Karame, with a friendly audience in front of him,
quickly turned his words from those of mourning to a polemic
against the present government and its leadership. He took
direct aim at Samir Ja'ja', calling for his imprisonment for
murder, and denouncing his 2005 pardon as the work of a
non-representative parliament. Karame went on to praise the
"resistance," demanding Sunni support for Hizballah's
continued role as an armed force. Anyone calling for a
review of the role of the resistance, according to Karame,
was a foreign agent.


5. (C) Karame's speech was followed by several others in
the same vein. The speakers blamed U.S. and French policies
for destabilizing Lebanon. They bashed the government of
Fouad Siniora and the majority led by Saad Hariri. Their
message was that the north, both Christian and Sunni, was
betrayed by the elections and the majority that arose from
those elections. The north, they said, has been ignored by
the international community and victimized by the west. "If
the elections were held today, Omar Karame would win the
north," Suleiman Franjieh announced to the crowd in Karame's
home town of Tripoli.


6. (C) Comment: The speakers at the commemoration were
those who lost status and position with the rise of Saad
Hariri and his majority. The Karame event was a show of
solidarity among disaffected losers. All the leaders who
gathered to commemorate Rashid Karame will join together in a
political movement, to be declared officially later this
week. Franjieh will announce the formation of his own
political party on June 11. Because of their past
affiliation with Syria, this group will inevitably be called
"pro-Syrian" in Lebanon's political discourse. But their
real motivations seem much more egocentric. They are more
anti-Hariri then they are pro-anything. The conciliatory
words aimed at Hizballah from a prominent Sunni must have
been crafted, in part, to pull away from Saad Hariri those
Shia who still support him. End comment.
FELTMAN