Syrian premier's "cartoon" remark angers Lebanese majority

Oct 24, 2010, 11:04 GMT

Beirut - A remark by Syrian Prime Minister Naji Otari's comparing the Lebanese western-backed majority to 'cartoons' has drawn a storm of protest from members of the coalition in Beirut, local media reported Sunday.

In an interview in the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper Saturday, Otari dubbed the Lebanese government 'cartoon structures' - adding that Damascus is 'keen on every Lebanese brother who believes in a close relation with Syria and works towards embodying it.'

The comment has inflamed the already tense relations between Beirut and Damascus.

'The policy of the outstretched hand does not work with Syria,' Christian Phalange parliamentarian Nadim Gemayel hit back.

'What is needed today is to go back to dealing strictly with Syria,' he said.

The assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri in 2005 caused a local and international outcry which led to street demonstrations in Beirut and eventually pressured Syria - Lebanon's once powerbroker - to end its 30-year military presence in its small neighbour,

Hariri's followers accused Syria and its allies in Lebanon of being behind the Hariri car bombing, a charge Damascus still denies.

Ammar Houri, a lawmaker in the Future Movement, led by the Saad Hariri, the son of Hariri, said Sunday that Otari's statement was 'strange' given the outstretched policy adopted by Hariri toward Syria.

'The Furture Movement regrets that the premier of a brotherly nation has voiced such inappropriate remarks against a political, popular movement,' Houri said.

Such remarks are considered as 'meddling in Lebanon's domestic affairs.'

Tension is currently high in Lebanon amid reports that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which is probing the assassination, will indict some Hezbollah members.

The Iranian-Syrian backed Hezbollah-led opposition in the country have rejected such accusations and called for the tribunal's abolition describing it as 'politicized and an Israeli project.'

There are fears that if the court does indict Hezbollah members, it could lead to clashes similar to those of the May 2008, which pitted followers of the Lebanese Shiite Movement Hezbollah and other loyal to Sunni premier Saad Hariri.

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