Selling his soul
MP and Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michel Aoun’s visit to Syria, is, if we believe all we read and hear, no ordinary courtesy call. The itinerary is apparently a carbon copy of that chosen for Pope John Paul II in 2001: There is a banquet and visits to Christian neighborhoods in Damascus, historic churches, convents and rural Christian villages. There will be lengthy talks with high-ranking officials, as well as more than one meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The former general is no doubt rubbing himself with glee at the ecclesiastical sheen his visit has acquired.
But let us not get carried away. It has been 20 years since Aoun last set foot in Syria. The two decades, which began with his flight into French exile in 1990, represent a dark chapter in Lebanese-Syrian relations, one punctuated by fear, corruption and brutality.
Aoun returned in the wake of the 2005 Cedar Revolution amid rumors that a deal was struck with his former nemesis. In the 2005 elections, his party won 22 seats in parliament, and soon thereafter he allied himself with the opposition and pro-Syrian March 8 alliance by signing the controversial Memorandum of Understanding with Hezbollah.
Today, Aoun insists his visit to Damascus will start a new chapter in his, and apparently Lebanon’s, relationship with Syria, a country he assures us wants to live in peaceful co-existence with its neighbor. Such a noble goal definitely deserves a chance, but only when there is a genuine effort from both sides to resolve outstanding issues. The bag of tricks that Syria has deployed – bogus televised confessions from Fatah al-Islam villains, troop deployments on Lebanon’s border and stalled diplomatic relations – has demonstrated that such goodwill is nonexistent.
And yet Aoun, who has arguably felt the wrath of Syria more than any current Lebanese politician – let us not forget he went to war with Damascus – is trying to sell us assurances that a regime that has consistently demonstrated its rabid desire to regain its influence in Lebanon is soft, cuddly and misunderstood.
Aoun’s allies held massive “loyalty” demonstrations prior the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005, thanking Syria for its role in post-war Lebanon. The Free Patriotic Movement was a major partner in the opposition’s subsequent sit-in that brought downtown Beirut to a halt for 18 months. Aoun also played an important role in obstructing state institutions – including the election of a president – and defended the murder, by a Hezbollah member, of a Lebanese army helicopter pilot in South Lebanon on August 28 of this year.
Then we have the megalomania. He does not need the media to hint at his greatness. Speaking to Lebanese daily An-Nahar last week, Aoun himself compared his visit to Syria to French President General Charles De Gaulle’s historic trip to Germany in 1958. That was 13 years after the end of the Second World War and, crucially, 13 years after the downfall of the Nazi regime. Aoun also put the visit in a religious context, describing the “sacred” and “historical” aspects of a trip that is nothing more than a strategic car ride to cozy up to a regime whose ideals are diametrically opposed to those of most Lebanese and which has done little to show it wants to further genuine bilateral ties.
Aoun is not going to demand a fast tracking of diplomatic relations. It is highly unlikely he will demand answers on the Lebanese detainees, border demarcation, border control and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
Knowing that his alliance with Hezbollah has cost him support in the Christian constituencies, Aoun is going to Syria to swear allegiance to a regime with whom he has become enmeshed because he needs help in the 2009 parliamentary elections.
Forget Papal comparisons; Aoun has sold his soul.