Three Syrian Officers Sneak Back to Re-marshal Allies in N. Lebanon May 31, 2005

Three Syrian Officers Sneak Back to Re-marshal Allies in N. Lebanon May 31, 2005 www.naharnet.com
Three Syrian intelligence officers were reported Tuesday to have snuck back to Lebanon to recast Syria's allies in election lists against opposition tickets of the towering alliance that ranges together Saad Hariri's Tayyar Al Mustaqbal, Qornet Shahwan, Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces and Walid Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party in North Lebanon. The report was carried by An Nahar and Al Mustaqbal newspapers. They said the three sneaking-back officers were operating from Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city after Beirut, and Akkar, provincial capital of northern Lebanon's countryside. "The three are organizing the election lists of Syria's allies there," An Nahar said. "They are helping form pro-Syrian election coalitions to challenge the opposition in northern Lebanon and have held meetings with a number of Syria's allies and with 'key' electoral brokers," Al Mustaqbal said. The two papers said the returning Syrians were headed by Brig. Gen. Mohammed Khallouf, who served as chief of Syria's intelligence service in Beirut before its evacuation of Lebanon in April. He is assisted by Nabil Hishmeh, the former Syrian intelligence officer in charge of Akkar and Khalil Zogheib, who headed Syria's former intelligence service in Tripoli. If the report is accurate, the three officers will be the first to return to Lebanon since the evacuation was completed April 26, defying both the March 14 Lebanese opposition uprising that forced Syria out and U.N. Resolution 1559 which brought international pressure to bear on the Assad regime to leave Lebanon. There was no immediate confirmation or denial of the report from either the Lebanese or the Syrian government. Syria's influence in the north, which was near-absolute in the past, has crumbled with the withdrawal from the election race of ex-Premier Omar Karami of Tripoli and former Vice Premier Issam Fares, leaving ex-Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh to face the anti-Syria opposition avalanche alone.