The Syrian Take
Here’s the official 13 August 2006 statement from Syria’s news agency. [Extract, my bolding]
“Syria is looking for the UN Security Council and the parties concerned to do what is required from them as stated by the resolution 1701 so that Syria can confirm its commitments in line with the UN Security Council relevant resolutions and the UN Charter,” the source said.
The source expressed Syria’s support to the Lebanese national consensus and the reservations expressed by the Lebanese official stance over the said Security Council resolution. Syria expresses deep sorrow that this resolution didn’t take into consideration many of the Lebanese demands. Besides, the resolution avoided holding Israel responsible for its brutal aggression on the innocent civilians and deliberate destruction of the Lebanese infrastructure in a way that amounts to war crimes.
“In addition to that, the resolution contains several items of internal Lebanese affairs upon which the Lebanese agreed, with confirmation that the framework which judges any field confrontations that could emerge between the cessation of military actions and the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon is April Understanding for 1996 which spars the lives of civilians on both sides and gives the Lebanese resistance a right to continue fighting as long as Israeli soldiers exist on the Lebanese territories,” the source concluded as saying.
In other words, both the Syrians and the Iranians are now stating officially that they support Hezbollah’s decision not to disarm, and perhaps not to stop fighting until the Israelis withdraw.
It’s also clear from the last paragraph that I appended that the Syrians need some better Arab-to-English translators at the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
Footnote: As I was typing this up, the SANA site updated with a notice that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had received a telephone call from UN Secretary General Kofi Anan about the Lebanon situation. You can bet that there’s a lot going on this evening behind the scenes.
