LEBANON: PARLIAMENT SPEAKER BERRI CLAIMS, "IT'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIRUT 003894 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/MARCHESE/HARDING, STATE FOR NEA/ELA, NEA/FO: ATACHCO E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER LE SUBJECT: LEBANON: PARLIAMENT SPEAKER BERRI CLAIMS, "IT'S NOT MY FAULT." Classified By: DCM Christopher W. Murray. Reason: Sections 1.4 (b) an d (d). SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) Visiting Senators Christopher Dodd and John Kerry reassured Speaker of the Lebanese Chamber of Deputies Nabih Berri that some elements of USG policy may change as a result of the recently-published findings of the Iraq Study Group, but USG support for Lebanon's independence will remain strong. The Speaker told the Senators that the Special Tribunal for the Hariri assassination could not be introduced in Parliament without the approval of President Lahoud. He questioned the government's haste in pushing the Tribunal forward, without allowing time for debate and a review of its compatibility with the Lebanese constitution. Berri asserted his support for UNSCR 1701 and his determination to ensure the safety of UNIFIL. ¶2. (C) The Speaker claimed that his efforts to promote dialogue among Lebanon's feuding parties had come close to success; only the Israeli-Hizballah War and the betrayal of the dialogue talks by Prime Minister Siniora and MP Saad Hariri had frustrated his reconciliation attempts. Berri complained of Israel's continuing overflights of Lebanon and occupation of the Shebaa Farms. He cited the ongoing Saudi-Syrian feud as the root of Lebanon's internal disputes. The Senators pledged their continuing support for Lebanon, and declared that the Special Tribunal enjoys solid international support. End Summary. IRAQ -------------- ¶3. (C) Senator Dodd noted that the CODEL had recently visited Iraq. The Senator emphasized the importance successful stabilization. Berri asked about USG policy after the issuance of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) report. Senator Dodd noted that the implications of the report go beyond Iraq. Senator Kerry added that some elements of USG policy will have to change. Berri commented that not only elements of USG policy toward Iraq will have to change, but also elements of policy toward Lebanon. Berri observed that the ISG report warned against the spread of Iraq-style violence in the region. He said Sunni-Shia tension has risen in Lebanon, but Lebanon could not withstand the kind of violence that now exists in Iraq. �A;LEBANON'S POLITICAL IMPASSE -------------- ¶4. (C) Senator Dodd asked about Lebanon's current political situation. How would the ongoing downtown demonstrations turn out, what is the future of Lebanese-Syrian relations, will UN Security Council Resolution 1701 be fully implemented, and what can the U.S. do to help? ¶5. (C) Senator Kerry reported that he had met Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in Egypt several days earlier. SIPDIS Moussa had said that he was making progress in finding a resolution of Lebanon's political crisis. Berri objected to this upbeat assessment, saying that the problem with Moussa,s proposals is that the devil is in the details. ¶6. (C) The problem in Lebanon is "20-40 percent Arab, and the rest American," Berri said, noting that he was conveying a tough message. While the U.S. indeed stands for democracy and representative government, resolving the Lebanese political crisis depends on U.S. efforts to promote reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Syria. Berri said that he himself had engaged in shuttle diplomacy toward this end in early 2006. ¶7. (C) Berri said he had tried to reconcile Lebanon's feuding political factions in the National Dialogue that he sponsored this past spring. He brought together Lebanese leaders who "didn't even know each other, except from television," and sat them down around a conference table. They took up a ten-item agenda, including the presidency and Hizballah's arms. The Dialogue was a great success, Berri claimed. ¶8. (C) Berri claimed that the summer conflict broke the momentum of the dialogue. The war was not against Hizballah, BEIRUT 00003894 002 OF 004 as Israel had asserted. Especially in the first five days, Israel waged war against Lebanon's infrastructure, its industry, and its children. Israeli tanks faced off against Lebanese children, Berri exclaimed indignantly. "Are Americans really with Lebanon?" he asked. Berri said he had proposed to Secretary Rice that if the war was really about Israeli prisoners, he could manage an exchange of all three prisoners (meaning, evidently, the two soldiers kidnapped into Lebanon and the soldier kidnapped earlier in Gaza) within one week. But the USG refused, Berri claimed, believing that Israel would win its war against Hizballah. The situation turned out similar to that in Iraq, Berri commented, where in three weeks the United States defeated Iraq's armed forces, but for over three years now what the USG calls "guerrillas" have beaten U.S. forces. In the Lebanese case, for 33 days the Israelis spread destruction in Lebanon and created hundreds of thousands of displaced persons but only killed 200-300 Hizballah fighters. ¶9. (C) Berri continued his connection between the war and Lebanon,s internal political problems with some comments on UNSCR 1701. He asked rhetorically why 1701 was necessary in the context of the Israeli-Hizballah War. Had not Berri made a political initiative incorporating all the major points of the resolution before the first shots were fired? UNSCR 1701 was easy to accept, he said, because all of its points had been previously agreed to. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had been present in south Lebanon since 1978, coexisting peacefully with the local population. Berri protected and supported UNIFIL, even going almost "to war" against extremists who kidnapped and assassinated an American observer from the UN Treaty Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in the late 1980's. ¶10. (C) No one is against Resolution 1701, Berri continued. UNIFIL's expanded force has been on the ground for more than three months and UNIFIL has not had a single negative experience involving the Lebanese side. By contrast, Israeli forces have provoked a number of incidents with UNIFIL, including disputes on the ground and in the air with French and German forces. "I will not accept any problems against UNIFIL," Berri concluded. ¶11. (C) Berri returned to the domestic impasse by saying that after the war, he traveled to Saudi Arabia to promote Saudi-Syrian reconciliation. He then called for internal "consultations," that would essentially resurrect the National Dialogue, but he wanted to avoid re-using the title "Dialogue." The first, second and third sessions the consultations went well, with Mustaqbal Party leader MP Saad Hariri and Berri,s colleagues in the opposition agreeing on the Hariri tribunal and on the formation of a national unity government. Berri had asked Hariri why Hariri insisted on the formation of the tribunal first, when all other parties to the consultations wanted to start with the national unity government. Berri said he was "puzzled8 when at the last moment Hariri went back, by insisting on the initial approval of the Tribunal, from what Berri said was a compromise that would have brought first the formation of the national unity government. When Hariri insisted on initial approval of the Tribunal, the opposition was ready to begin its anti-government street demonstrations. Berri intervened, he said, to stave off the demonstrations, while also seeking resumption of the consultations. All this changed on November 21 when Minister of Industry Pierre Gemayel was assassinated. ¶12. (C) Berri said he had asked Saudi King Abdullah to talk to Damascus, with a view to building bridges with President Assad, for the sake of both Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Berri claimed, "I can solve the problem here in one hour if I have a Saudi-Syrian bridge. The U.S. government can make this bridge." Senator Kerry asked about the nature of the proposed bridge and how the Tribunal fit in with it. Berri answered that the USG enjoys enormous influence with the Saudis and could therefore persuade them to reconcile with Syria. The Tribunal is one detail in a possible deal but not the major factor. THE SPECIAL TRIBUNAL -------------- ¶13. (C) Senator Dodd noted that the CODEL would travel to Syria and Jordan, and that he and Senator Kerry would be interested in hearing Berri's perspective on the Special BEIRUT 00003894 003 OF 004 Tribunal to try suspects responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri, and other possibly related crimes. Berri, in his capacity as Speaker of the Parliament, replied that the tribunal is "not yet at my door." He reported that under the Lebanese constitution, the law creating the tribunal, which has been passed by the Cabinet, still had to be signed by the President of the Republic (President Emile Lahoud) before it could be sent for final adoption by the Parliament. "We cannot go ahead with this project." ¶14. (C) On the Tribunal, Berri commented that the March 14 majority leaders made many mistakes. He asked rhetorically (noting that he is a lawyer) why the Tribunal should be created before the conclusion of the investigation into former PM Rafiq Hariri's assassination. Of equal concern, the March 14 leaders wanted to approve the Tribunal without first discussing it and examining whether it is consistent with the Lebanese constitution. Berri noted that at the start of the National Dialogue on March 2, the first item on the agenda had been the international investigation into the Hariri murder. The second had been the international tribunal. All parties came to an agreement on these two agenda items within one hour, Berri claimed, and agreed that when they had a draft of the Tribunal statute they would examine the details. ¶15. (C) Berri said that he had been the first to demand an international tribunal for the Hariri assassination. He added that he sought a tribunal with a seat in Beirut, along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Sierra Leone. There were still unresolved issues with the current text, he noted, including the fact that Lebanon still practices capital punishment, unlike many countries that support the Tribunal. Another problem is the principle that the superiors of figures implicated in the assassination could be held responsible for their subordinates, criminal acts, regardless of whether the superiors knew of those acts or not. "If the bodyguard outside my house does something after hours," Berri asked by way of example, "can I know of his act or be held responsible? And can it be held against me?" ¶16. (C) Berri asked, in reference to the majority-led Cabinet,s quick approval of the Special Tribunal documents, &Why could we not discuss the Tribunal for a few days at least? Why the urgency to approve the Tribunal over the objections of the other side, and before the conclusion of the Brammertz investigation?8 Senator Kerry responded that, "in our country and globally, the assassination of Rafiq Hariri hit a nerve." He added that Syria's influence is perceived to be strong in Lebanon, strong enough to have an impact on the effort to achieve accountability for the assassination. The international community needs clarity on this and needs to know that the Brammertz investigation will be followed up with a Tribunal. In the region and internationally, Rafiq Hariri had strong relations. The Tribunal is part of the "bridge" to build trust that Berri had mentioned before, Senator Kerry concluded. ¶17. (C) Berri argued that PM Siniora had made gaffes that Rafiq Hariri (whom Berri described as "my friend") would never have committed. Berri told Siniora not to make the mistake of taking unilateral action on Special Tribunal legislation: "Set up a Parliament session to discuss the Tribunal and let me know when you want it," he said he had urged the PM. Instead, Siniora set an immediate cabinet session and approved the Tribunal over the objections of opposition ministers, who would not have opposed the Tribunal if given a chance to consult on it. ¶18. (C) Berri claimed that even Syrian President Bashar al-Asad has said that he does not fear the Tribunal. If anyone in Syria were involved in the assassination, then that person would be tried as a traitor in Syria. The Syrian Vice-Foreign Minister had said the Tribunal is not a matter of concern to Syria. "I want Americans to understand, and I have repeated it a hundred times," Berri said, "and I quote Rafiq Hariri: It is not acceptable for Lebanon to be dominated by Syria but it is also unacceptable for Lebanon to be dominated against Syria." ¶19. (C) Senator Dodd called the quote a "good point" and noted that interests and relations between the two countries are deep and will transcend the time of those now in elected BEIRUT 00003894 004 OF 004 office. It is our responsibility to try to understand, he said, and to have conversations with all sides." But the conversations must have a point. Syria must make decisions. There are choices to be made which could make things easier or harder for our relations in the future." He noted that the CODEL would proceed to Damascus to see President Asad. "There are others -- you know whom -- who do not have Lebanon's best interests in mind, and it is important for us to find common ground." ¶20. (C) Senator Dodd then asked Berri for his opinion on the elimination of Hizballah's arms. Berri did not respond directly but said, "Israel created Hizballah. Hizballah wasn't here before the Israeli occupation. We are a small country and have no interest in attacking others." He then described how the arrival of Palestinian refugees in the early 1970's, and a series of broken promises by the international community to help, had destabilized Lebanon and led to war. Finally, Berri criticized Israel's continued occupation of the Lebanese-claimed Shebaa Farms, and Israeli overflights of Lebanese territory. Even during the opening session of his National Dialogue last March, Berri noted, eight Israeli planes buzzed over the Parliament building. "They have other ways to gather intelligence!" Berri asserted. LEBANESE IN THE U.S. -------------- ¶21. (C) Berri, who was once a legal permanent resident, noted that Dearborn, Michigan, where many of his family members reside, has the highest concentration of Lebanese-Americans in the U.S. He asked about the Lebanese communities in the Senators' home states. Senator Dodd noted a strong Lebanese-American presence in Danbury, Connecticut. He commended the successful evacuation of 15,000 Americans during the summer conflict, many of whom had fled from southern Lebanon. Berri said that in many locations more than half the population in the southern Lebanon area monitored by UNIFIL is Lebanese-American. For example, as many as 80 percent of the population in the border-area village of Bint Jbeil holds U.S. nationality. ¶22. (SBU) Senator Dodd praised the contributions and success of Lebanese-Americans. Berri agreed with this success, but added "maybe that's our problem." Lebanese excel outside Lebanon, but Lebanon remains a country in dire straits. He noted that people of Lebanese origin are members of parliaments in 19 different countries, including the Speaker of the Brazilian parliament. ¶23. (U) This cable has not been cleared by CODEL Dodd. FELTMAN