Karami Crosses Swords with Bush Administration over Syria

Premier Omar Karami has urged the United States to leave Lebanon alone, saying the campaign for the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon "deserves gratitude, but we know better how to work for our own interests."Karami dropped the remark during a visit to his hometown of Tripoli Monday, responding to a demand by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs David Satterfield that the time has come for Syria to withdraw its army and end its 28-year-old tutelage over Lebanon, An Nahar reported Tuesday."Satterfield will be better off if he concerns himself with the affairs of his country, leaving Lebanon to its own people," Karami said as drummers in white flowing robes greeted him at his north Lebanon power base. State Minister Albert Mansour took Karami's defiance of the U.N. resolution that calls for Syria's departure,1559, a notch up at a mass rally held at his hometown of Ras Baalbek in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Monday."When the conflict becomes a focus on the fate of Lebanese-Syrian relations, I prefer one thousand times to lose with Syria than to win with America and Israel," Mansour said, according to An Nahar."And when the problem spirals up to a U.S.-Israeli demand to shed Hizbullah's blood, I prefer to fall a martyr within the ranks of the Party of God," said Mansour, a Catholic, of resolution 1559 stipulation that Hizbullah be disarmed.The 1559 resolution took only two lines in an 8-page policy statement submitted to parliament Monday by Karami's newly formed cabinet, seeking a vote of confidence."Our government will deal with resolution 1559 in line with the messages sent by Lebanon's Foreign Ministry to the United States," the statement said. The messages had insisted that Syria's military presence in Lebanon concerns only the governments of the two countries