UN Council Poised to Push Syria on Ties to Beirut 
May 16, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-lebanon-syria-un.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A divided U.N. Security Council was poised to approve on Wednesday a draft resolution pressing Syria and Lebanon to establish formal diplomatic ties, British, French and U.S. diplomats said on Tuesday.
London, Paris and Washington expected at least 11 of the council's 15 members to support their draft text, the diplomats said. At least nine ``yes'' votes -- and no veto -- are required for adoption.
While veto-wielding permanent council members Russia and China opposed the measure along with Argentina and Qatar, the council's sole Arab member, Beijing and Moscow were expected to abstain rather than cast a ``no'' vote and kill the measure, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The draft text, first circulated among council members last week, broadly seeks full implementation of council Resolution 1559 of September 2004, which called for an end to outside interference in Lebanon, which at the time had been under Syrian domination for 29 years.
The 2004 resolution sought the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon, free and fair presidential elections, and the disarming of all militias so the government could extend its control to all of its territory.
Under new compromise language unveiled on Monday, the text ''strongly encourages'' Syria to respond to Lebanese government requests to clarify their shared border and agree to formal diplomatic relations. That softened an earlier draft saying the council ``calls upon'' Syria to take those steps.
The measure also would push Syria to take steps to prevent arms flows from Syrian territory to militias in Lebanon. 
REFERENCE TO IRAN, HIZBOLLAH
And it would ``call on all concerned states and parties'' to cooperate with the Lebanese government and the United Nations in fully implementing the 2004 resolution.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said that language referred to Iran and the Iranian- and Syrian-supported Hizbollah militia as well as to Syria.
An Argentine diplomat said his government objected to the provision pressing Syria and Lebanon to establish formal ties and was still looking for a further compromise that would enable it to vote in favor of the draft.
Diplomatic ties were a bilateral issue and not a matter for the Security Council, said the diplomat, pleading anonymity.
The diplomat denied that stance was influenced by Syria's seat on a U.N. decolonization panel scrutinizing the ownership of a disputed island group at the center of a 1982 war between Argentina and Britain. Argentina calls the islands the Malvinas while Britain calls them the Falklands.
Bolton has argued diplomatic ties would force Syria to ''come out of denial'' and recognize Lebanese sovereignty.
Syria withdrew from Lebanon in April 2005, responding to international outrage and Lebanese protests sparked by the assassination a few months earlier of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
U.N. investigators have cited evidence linking senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies to the killing.
But despite Resolution 1559, Hizbollah fighters remain active in southern Lebanon, regularly skirmishing with Israeli forces in the Shebaa Farms area.
Hizbollah says it needs to stay armed to defend the Shebaa Farms area, which it insists is part of Lebanon. The United Nations says it is part of Israeli-occupied Syria, but that Beirut and Damascus could get together and fix their border as they see fit.