As the Syrian President prepares to visit Lebanon over the next 24 hours, and with the resumption of political activity on the Beirut-Damascus axis in a context of improved relations, the Guardians of the Cedars -The Movement of Lebanese Nationalism has issued the following communiqué:
The Lebanese people have no objection to establishing normal relations with Syria – we do not say “special relations” like the cajolers and outbidders do – provided that this time around these relations are based on correct, honest and clear criteria, and are grounded in a new era of genuine peace, unlike that dark period that was based on occupation, tyranny, despotism, oppression and condescension, and the culture of violence, killing, repression, criminality and the displacement of people.
The first of these criteria is for the Syrian regime to relinquish forever its expansionist dreams over Lebanon and stop interacting with this country from a standpoint of superiority. It ought to respect the sovereignty and independence of Lebanon in deeds and not just words, and it should stop dealing with it as one of its provinces. It should cease interfering in its affairs, big and small, by stirring up crises with the goal of controlling their outcomes or further complicating them in accordance with its own interests. It should stop using Lebanon as a bargaining chip with which to exert pressure in seeking to score political objectives and break Syria’s international isolation.
The second criterion is for Syria to urgently and definitively close the dossier of the missing Lebanese in Syrian prisons, and end this long-standing, painful and shameful tragedy.
The third criterion mandates on Syria to agree to delineate its borders with Lebanon with the help of specialized international commissions that preserve Lebanon’s rights to recover the areas located along the Eastern Lebanon mountain chain that were torn from it, and that restitute to Lebanon its pilfered share of the waters of the Orontes River that can revitalize the Bekaa Valley, especially the Baalbeck-Hermel area suffering from drought, even though the river has its sources from its territory yet goes to irrigate other countries.
The fourth criterion requires a functioning Syrian Embassy in Lebanon, limiting relations between the two countries to the diplomatic channels in accordance with international principles and conventions, abolishing the so-called Syrian-Lebanese Higher Council, putting an end to all the groundless sloganeering that is reminiscent of the era of Syrian custody over Lebanon, such as: One people in two countries, or two peoples in one country, when in fact we are two distinct peoples in two distinct countries based on history, geography and geopolitics, or saying that it is up to Lebanon to rectify its relation with Syria, as if it was Lebanon that attacked Syria and sent its army to occupy it, and not the other way around!!!
As far as the issue of the agreements that were concluded, or are in the process of being concluded, the Lebanese believe that it is premature for such agreements to be concluded between Syria and Lebanon as long as there is a flaw in the balance of power between the two countries. The Lebanese also refuse to discuss new conventions on defense, security, and foreign policy because they pose a serious danger to this country, restrict its foreign policy, force Lebanon into the crucible of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and officially link the country to regional axes that Lebanon is in no position to sustain.
The above represents the honest opinion of the vast majority of the Lebanese people who have endured occupation, wars, and massacres that they do not wish to see return and be burned twice by the same fire.
Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz