Cheers, Ken Hanly
Manley takes antiterror message to Lebanon
By JEFF GRAY Globe and Mail Update
Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley met with Lebanese leaders on Tuesday, delivering the same message he has taken to other capitals on his five-day tour of the Middle East: Do everything you can to stop terrorism.
"Governments that have the ability to influence any groups that use violence as means to advancing political objectives should use that influence in order to discourage that," Mr. Manley told a news conference in Beirut, Reuters News Agency reported.
He was responding to a question whether Canada had asked Lebanon to stop attacks by Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim organization waging a low-intensity war against Israeli troops occupying the Shebaa Farms, a disputed strip of land near the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.
"Fundamentally for us we see that hope for peace in the region is one that rests on the negotiation table," Mr. Manley was quoted as saying.
The minister held meetings Tuesday with Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, President Émile Lahoud and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Lebanon has condemned the Sept. 11 attacks and promised co-operation with the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign. But it rejected Canada's call to stop its support of Hezbollah, saying terrorism should be distinguished from resisting foreign occupation.
The Lebanese government has backed Hezbollah, whose guerrilla war against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon led to the Israeli pullout from the region.
"Violence will spawn violence. Terrorism has no religion or affiliation and it should not be mixed up with the peoples' right to struggle for the recovery of their occupied territories. ... The occupation of others' lands is in itself terrorism," Mr. Lahoud told Mr. Manley, according to a Lebanese presidential statement.
Comments he made on Monday in Syria about groups that use violence - including suicide bombers - against Israel did not sit well with one Lebanese newspaper.
Mr. Manley urged Syria to use its influence to discourage groups such as Hezbollah and extremist Palestinian groups such as Hamas to stop using violence.
On Tuesday, the editor of an influential Lebanese paper described Mr. Manley's call to restrain what Syria and Lebanon consider legitimate resistance groups as "trivial."
"When a cold country like Canada comes to a hot region like the Middle East, it must be careful that its frozen ideas don't melt and lose their cohesion," Al Kifah Al Arabi said in its front-page editorial, according to the Associated Press.
The editorial, written by publisher Walid Husseini, said Canada was following U.S. policy in the Middle East that favours Israel. "As if Israel needs a neighbour of America as an ally, and as if the Arabs need a (new) oppressor like America," Mr. Husseini wrote.
Mr. Manley met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday, urging him to "discourage" militant groups that use his country as a base for attacks on Israel.
"We believe groups who blow up people having lunch in a restaurant are simply undermining the cause they think they are supporting," he told Reuters News Agency after his meetings in Syria.
Mr. Manley is spending the five-day Middle East tour to muster support for a worldwide campaign against terrorism. His trip began in Iran and ends this week with separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Mr. Manley told The Toronto Star on Monday that civilian casualties in the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan will likely erode support among Arab countries for antiterrorism efforts.
"The focus on civilian casualties that will follow misdirected bombs and that sort of thing has the potential of being reflected in the streets in Arab countries, and it will make it difficult for governments to support the broader effort against terrorism," Mr. Manley was quoted as saying.