U.S. recalls its ambassador to Syria

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration recalled the U.S. ambassador to Syria on Tuesday to protest what it sees as Syria's role in the murder of the former prime minister of Lebanon, as violent anti- Syrian protests erupted in Beirut and several other Lebanese cities.

At the United Nations, the administration also demanded that Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon, and the Security Council called for an urgent investigation into the killing of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, who died Monday with several others -- media reports range from nine to 16 -- when a huge car bomb blew up his motorcade in downtown Beirut.

Investigators in Lebanon said they had come to no conclusion yet as to who carried out the attack. But Lebanese opposition leaders joined with the Bush administration in linking Syria to the bombing.

Hariri, a billionaire developer, was the central figure in the country's reconstruction after a devastating 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, and his death aroused fears that the country could descend again into unrest.

In Beirut, large crowds went to the site of the explosion, which investigators said appeared to be the work of a suicide attacker who managed to drive in between cars of Hariri's motorcade. Another theory was that the bomb had been placed in a sewer or under the pavement.

Though there were some in Lebanon who argued that the murder might have been engineered by al-Qaida, presumably to punish Hariri for his ties to Saudi Arabia, demonstrators mobilized throughout the country to blame Syria.

In Sidon, Hariri's hometown, Syrian workers were attacked by dozens of protesters before the police intervened, and hundreds of Lebanese marched with black banners and pictures of the slain leader. A mob also attacked a Beirut office of Syria's ruling Baath Party.

Thousands of protesters also massed in the northern port city of Tripoli, according to Reuters. Many analysts in Lebanon said Syria had reason to punish Hariri because he had been the leader in trying to block a new presidential term for President Emile Lahoud, a Maronite Christian who is an ally of Syria.

Failing that effort, which had the backing of the United States and France, Hariri supported a resolution at the U.N. Security Council last year that was also pushed by Washington and Paris demanding that Syria withdraw its 14,000 troops.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other U.S. officials said the suspected Syrian complicity in the bombing attack was the latest in a series of hostile acts, including what they contend is Syria's support of the insurgency in Iraq and of groups carrying out violent attacks on civilians in Israel aimed at disrupting peace talks with the Palestinians.

In Damascus, however, Syrian officials continued to vigorously deny involvement in the explosion, which the government information minister called "an act of terrorism, a crime that seeks to destabilize Lebanon."

The minister, Mahdi Dakhl-Allah, also deplored the anti-Syrian violence and called on the Lebanese to "remain united and strong and continue to reject domestic strife and foreign intervention." Syria has played the dominant role in Lebanon's politics since it moved troops into the country in the 1970s.

At the United Nations, meanwhile, at the behest of the United States the Security Council deplored the bombing as a threat to Lebanon's democratic process. Without assigning blame, it called on Secretary-General Kofi Annan to report back to council members on what happened.

The killing of Hariri, a close ally of both the United States and France, sent fears throughout the Middle East, where memories of Lebanon's civil war are fresh. Concerns were sharpened that the delicate balance among Christians and Shiite and Sunni Muslims could come unhinged at a time when sectarian conflict is afflicting nearby Iraq.

In recent weeks, the United States has been increasing pressure on Syria, focusing on Syria's troop presence in Lebanon and its alleged support of the Iraq insurgency and of anti-Israel violence. Rice acknowledged that the recall of Ambassador Margaret Scobey was prompted by more than Hariri's death.

The removal of Scobey, she said, "relates to, unfortunately, the fact that the relationship has been for some time not moving in a positive direction, but this event in Lebanon, of course, is the proximate cause of the withdrawal."

Appearing at a meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Rice also acknowledged, however, that the precise perpetrators of the bombing attack were unknown. "We're not laying blame," she asserted. "It needs to be investigated."

Since taking office last month, Rice has adopted a tough line against Syria, effectively signaling the end of what administration officials said had been a heated internal debate about whether its role in the Middle East was helpful or not to U.S. interests.

In going after Syria, the Bush administration also appeared to be sending a tough message to Syria's ally, Iran, which Washington says is supplying the financing for the attacks on Israelis.

The decision to withdraw Scobey was acknowledged by U.S. officials as a symbolic step tantamount to a downgrading of diplomatic relations, because no date was announced for her return.

Since the 1970s, Syria has used its troop presence in Lebanon to dominate Lebanese politics, at the time with the blessing of U.S. and Israeli leaders. Now, however, Syria's presence is widely regarded as a destructive factor in the region even as some concede that it has added a measure of stability to a country long torn by sectarian factions.

Opponents of Lahoud and his Syrian backers were the quickest to blame Syria for Hariri's death.Some consideration was being given to invoking the Patriot Act, passed and signed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which might allow the United States to act against financial transactions between U.S. and Syrian businesses or subsidiaries.

That step appeared to be held in reserve, for the time being, to give Syria more of a chance to cooperate with U.S. demands. But some experts said that a U.S.-led confrontation with Syria, and by extension Iran, in the name of democracy and demanding removal of Syrian troops, could backfire by persuading Syria to meddle even further in Lebanon and send it over the edge into civil strife.

"Syria is low-hanging fruit compared to Iran," said Martin Indyk, a former Middle East official in the Clinton administration and now director of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, meaning that Syria, a poor country, may be easier to pressure than oil-rich Iran.

Indyk explained that the danger of getting pulled into in a war in Lebanon was that it would make more difficult the pursuit of U.S. interests in more strategic parts of the Middle East, particularly Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"The administration may find that what started out as a sideshow in Lebanon could become a main game," Indyk added. "If Lebanon descends into hell, and it can, and Hezbollah starts firing into northern Israel, we may find ourselves preoccupied in a situation of questionable importance to the United States."

"This regime is backed by the Syrians," said Walid Jumblatt, a Druse leader in Lebanon. "This is the regime of terrorists and terrorism that was able yesterday to wipe out Rafik al-Hariri."

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