The death of Rafik Hariri

The recent death of former Lebanese Prime Minister has brought back memories of the Lebanese civil war, and now all fingers point to Syria. It is highly doubtful that the Syrian government would carry out such a move. Syria is under immense pressure at this present time already. With a hostile force of 150,000 US soldiers across the border in Iraq, US sanctions and the Syrian Accountability Act passed in the US house of congress ( passed in 2003: "To halt Syrian support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of weapons of mass destruction, cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil and illegal shipments of weapons and other military items to Iraq, and by so doing hold Syria accountable for the serious international security problems it has caused in the Middle East, and for other purposes." ). The UN security council in October 2004 issued a statement calling for Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon as well. UN security council resolution 1559 "calls for foreign troops to leave Lebanon and for Lebanese sovereignty to be respected."

Syria has been feeling the pinch. Syrian 'President' Bashar Al-Assad has offered to restart peace negotiations with Israel without preconditions. On various other fronts, the Syrian government is weakening. At such a time, one expects it extremely unlikely that the Syrian government authorized such a foolish act, with all the measures taken recently against Syria's keeping of troops in Lebanon ( although the Syrian government may have authorized the assasination of phalangist Elie Hobeika) The assasination of Rafik Hariri works only to Syria's disadvantage. It is all very well to speculate on 'islamists', mafia or other forces being responsible, yet another much more likely culprit is barely mentioned in the media: Israel.

Israel can only benefit from the unrelenting pressure on Syria. All other important surrounding countries are within the sphere of US influence, except Syria and Iran, two countries on which the US government is currently subjecting to a hypocritical campaign of criticism of government activities.

Israel has shown itsef willing and able to carry out bombings on neighbouring countries as shown by two recent attacks on Syria, one of which was a car bomb killing a member of Hamas residing in Syria. Israel is also not averse to bombing Lebanon should the fancy take it, as it has done in the past.

The death of Rafik Hariri will increase the pressure on Syria to submit to US hegemony over the Middle East. While one cannot rule it out entirely, it seems unlikely. Perhaps an investigation into possible Israeli complicity would yield some results.