BEIRUT - Implementing too quickly a UN resolution calling for Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon would result in "internal disorder", the Lebanese information minister said Thursday.
"The strategic aim of this resolution is to weaken Syria, deepen inter-Lebanese divisions and bring about internal disorder," Elie Ferzli told journalists, referring to a UN resolution passed in September calling for thousands of Syrian troops to leave Lebanon.
"Pending a regional solution, we want the great powers, led by the United States, to accept the current status quo in Lebanon, without provoking divisions in our society which could have serious consequences," he said, referring to the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.
"Syria dearly wants not to be in conflict with the international community," he said.
UN Security Council Resolution 1559, passed in September, called for the withdrawal of Syria's estimated 14,000 troops from Lebanon, an end to Damascus's perceived interference in its smaller neighbour's politics and the disarmament of the Shiite Muslim militia, Hezbollah.
But Ferzli said the disarmament of Hezbollah, which still controls large parts of southern Lebanon after Israeli forces ended their 20-year occupation there in 2000, would be impossible without "overall regional peace, which remains our strategic objective".
"Lebanese law and order forces cannot proceed with the disarmament without Syria's security cover, which is a factor in the country's internal stability," he said.
The comments echo those made by Lebanon's pro-Damascus Prime Minister Omar Karameh who said Wednesday that: "We must not move too quickly (with the withdrawal of Syrian troops) as that might lead to the destabilisation of Lebanon."
Ferzli said Resolution 1559 was of "Zionist" inspiration, as Israel's declared aim is to "put pressure on Syria in order to break the Lebanese-Syrian relationship and reach a separate peace deal" with Lebanon.
Syria and Lebanon are Israel's only two remaining neighbours not to have signed a peace deal with the Jewish state.
Damascus's offer on Wednesday of unconditional peace talks with Israel were swiftly rejected by Israel's Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
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