Liberty and Freedom marching in the Mid East?

[TYLERTECHSAS]

After this weekend's announcement by Egypt of possible elections and recent elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine >>now this!! IMHO, the very beginnings/hints of liberty and freedom march forward in the Mid East due mainly to the Good Lord and of course the correct Bush policies!


US welcomes resignation of pro-Syrian Lebanese government

1 hour, 46 minutes ago






WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House welcomed the resignation of pro-Syrian Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karameh saying it should pave the way for elections and a new government that was "truly representative."


AFP Photo


White House spokesman Scott McClellan also repeated a call for Syrian troops to leave Lebanon.



"We are closely watching developments with great interest," he told reporters.



"The resignation of the Karameh government represents an opportunity for the Lebanese people to have a new government which is truly representative of their country's diversity," McClellan said.



"The new government will have the responsibility to implement free and fair elections that the Lebanese people have clearly demonstrated they desire," McClellan added.



"The process of (forming) a new government should proceed in accordance with the Lebanese constitution and should be free of all foreign interference," the White House spokesman said.



"It is time for Syria to fully comply with United Nations (news - web sites) Security Council resolution 1559 that means that Syria military forces and intelligence personnel leave the country," he said. "That will help to ensure that elections are free and fair."



Karameh resigned on Monday in the face of mass protests, bringing to a head a political crisis sparked by the murder two weeks ago of his predecessor Rafiq Hariri.



The announcement was greeted with loud applause in Lebanon's national assembly, where the opposition had been seeking a vote of no confidence in Karameh's four-month-old government.



Tens of thousands of jubilant demonstrators in nearby Martyrs' Square in central Beirut broke into singing the national anthem.

[dhussdawg]

I am liking that Tyler. I know the dems will come up with some conspiracy about it all, but there is no doubt that the Middle East is turning a few corners on their own.

[johnnylightnin]

I am liking that Tyler. I know the dems will come up with some conspiracy about it all, but there is no doubt that the Middle East is turning a few corners on their own.

Wow, you neo-cons sure do buy into the Bush manifesto.

***************SARCASM***************

[Cool Hand Clyde]

I love freedom!

[dhussdawg]

Yeh, Bush is just creating a war machine lightnin. Everybody knows that, haha.

[sik-m-boi]

I love freedom!

do they spell "independence" differently in lebanon??

[TYLERTECHSAS]

do they spell "independence" differently in lebanon??

Looks like a spelling snafu that I might pull.

[johnnylightnin]

Dang,

I'm about to lose my 5th dot...I guess I better leave the libs alone for a while. You do have to give me credit for using the word manifesto, I'm still impressed quite honestly.

[TYLERTECHSAS]

Assad: Syrian troops out of Lebanon ‘very soon’
U.S. ratchets up diplomatic pressure on Damascus

Hussein Malla / AP

Lebanese opposition demonstrators read papers in Beirut on Tuesday, a day after the pro-Syrian Cabinet was forced out.


Feb. 28: The Lebanese prime minister abruptly announced plans Monday to dissolve his pro-Syrian government. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
Nightly News



MSNBC News Services
Updated: 6:51 p.m. ET March 1, 2005

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria expects to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in a few months, President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published Tuesday.

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Assad's statement came a day after popular protests helped force the resignation of Lebanon's Syrian-backed prime minister and as the United States pressed its call for an immediate end to Syrian military and political dominion over neighboring Lebanon.

The withdrawal "should be very soon and maybe in the next few months. Not after that,” Assad told Time magazine in an interview published on its Web site. “I could not say we could do it in two months because I have not had the meeting with the army people. They may say it will take six months,” he added.

Syria, which has 14,000 troops in Lebanon, has come under increasing pressure as a result of the mass demonstrations, which were in response to the assassination last month of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said there was gathering international resolve that Syria must pull out of Lebanon and allow the Lebanese to choose their own political future.

“The Syrians are out of step with where the region is going, and out of step with the aspirations of the people of the Middle East,” Rice said London, where she attended an international conference on Palestinian security and political reform.

Rice blames Islamic Jihad for bombing
Rice said there is “a long list of concerns about a Syria that is standing in the way of Lebanese, Iraqis, Palestinians and others in their aspirations for a better world.”

Rice, in an interview with ABC News, blamed terrorists operating in Syria for last week’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

“There is evidence that Islamic Jihad, headquartered in Syria, was in fact involved with the planning of those attacks in Tel Aviv. And so the Syrians have a lot to answer for,” she said.

“We don’t know the degree of Syrian involvement, but certainly what is happening on the territory of Syria, in and around Damascus, is clearly threatening to the different kind of Middle East we’re trying to grow.”

‘Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!’
Lebanon’s president took on the task of forming a new government Tuesday, while opposition leaders shook off the jubilation of using people power to force out a pro-Syrian Cabinet and sought to ensure the next one is not beholden to Damascus.

A few diehard activists remained in tents overnight and about 400 protesters joined them midmorning, but Lebanese soldiers had been withdrawn from the area where the day before 25,000 flag-waving demonstrators demanded — and got — Prime Minister Omar Karami’s resignation.

“We will be here every day until the last Syrian soldier withdraws from our land,” one activist said through a loudspeaker. The crowd, blowing whistles, chanted back: “Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!”

They sang in rhyming Arabic: “We are all, Muslims and Christians, against the Syrians.”

Elsewhere in the country, shops, businesses and banks reopened after a one-day strike Monday to protest the Feb. 14 assassination of Hariri, whose killing was the catalyst for the massive, peaceful protests demanding Syria release its military and political hold.

Rice hails moves for democracy
Rice welcomed what she called moves to restore democracy in Lebanon.


“The Lebanese people are starting to express their aspirations for democracy ... This is something that we support very much,” she said.

Rice said dismantling terrorist militias in southern Lebanon also would be critical to any forward steps in the region. “There can’t continue to be strikes from southern Lebanon,” she said.

Earlier in the day, the United States and France issued a joint statement calling for an international investigation of Hariri's death and for full withdrawal of Syrian troops.

Syria’s government has remained silent about the rapidly changing atmosphere in Beirut, the protests and Karami's resignation. Syria’s state-controlled media reported the resignation but did not mention the protests against the pro-Syrian government or show pictures on TV or in newspapers of the massive protests.

Demonstrators vow to carry on
In Beirut, demonstrators vowed to carry on, demanding the resignation of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud and the withdrawal of Syrian soldiers. Hariri’s parliamentary bloc issued a statement late Monday demanding the departure of Lebanese security and intelligence chiefs.


Opposition leaders — a diverse group of Muslim, Druse and Christians — were expected to meet to chart their course. They have demanded a neutral government to organize parliamentary elections this spring and to investigate Hariri’s murder, which they blame on the pro-Syrian government and Syria. Both governments have denied involvement.

The dramatic developments — reminiscent of Ukraine’s peaceful “Orange Revolution” — were broadcast live across the Arab world, including to Syria, where some people have access to satellite TV.

The State Department dubbed the events in Lebanon a “Cedar Revolution” — a moniker that brings the country in line with Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, Georgia’s Rose Revolution, and Ukraine’s Orange Revolution.

Lebanese carrying it out, however, call it their peaceful “independence uprising.” They wave Lebanon’s red-and-white flag with the Cedar tree in the middle and wear red-and-white scarves.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7023538/

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.