By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer BEIRUT, Lebanon – Lebanon’s pro-Syrian prime minister said Wednesday he was willing to resign in an effort to contain growing anger at his government and Damascus over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Prime Minister Omar Karami made the offer to step down in a newspaper interview. “I am ready to resign on condition that we agree on a new government in order to avoid falling into a constitutional vacuum,” he told the daily An-Nahar. Karami said he will seek a vote of confidence in Parliament on Monday, when lawmakers meet to discuss Hariri’s assassination in a Feb. 14 bombing in Beirut that also killed 16 others. The debate was requested by opposition legislators.
The government holds a majority in parliament but might lose it amid the unprecedented hostility toward Syria and its Lebanese allies over Hariri’s death. The political powers here and in Syria — the main power broker in Lebanon — may see Karami’s departure as a way to defuse the tensions.
Karami was installed in November by a narrow margin in Parliament, replacing Hariri, who held the office 10 of the last 14 years since the 1975-90 civil war ended and is credited with rebuilding the country.
The opposition blames the Lebanese government and its Syrian backers for the assassination. Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets at Hariri’s funeral last week and in a protest Monday demanding a change in government and a withdrawal of Syrian troops. Both governments have denied involvement in the murder.
With the international pressure on Damascus growing, U.S. ally Egypt stepped in to mediate. President Hosni Mubarak (news – web sites) sent his intelligence chief to Syria and said he expected Damascus to redeploy troops in Lebanon, but he did not mention a full withdrawal of Syria’s 15,000-strong military garrison as demanded by Washington, Paris and the United Nations (news – web sites).
“It is difficult for Syria to face the mounting pressure from the international community,” Mubarak told reporters in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt.
President Bush (news – web sites) reiterated his demand for Syria to pull its troops and its “secret services.”
“The charge is out there for the Syrian government to hear loud and clear,” Bush said Wednesday, speaking in Germany.
French President Jacques Chirac also called Syrian troops to leave Lebanon in a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Paris, a presidential spokesman said.
Chirac said that Lebanese parliamentary elections “will only be credible” if a U.N. resolution is applied that demands a total Syrian pullout and end to interference in Lebanese politics. Abdullah said in an article published in the French daily Le Monde that “Jordan and France share an interest in supporting Lebanon’s peaceful, democratic future.” The monarch did not elaborate.
A U.N. team led by Ireland’s deputy police commissioner was expected in Beirut on Thursday and will remain in the region for several weeks. It will report to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (news – web sites) and the Security Council within a month.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said David Satterfield, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, will visit Lebanon over the weekend . Satterfield, a former U.S. ambassador to Beirut, has previously urged Lebanon to implement the September U.N. resolution demanding that Syria withdraw its forces and stop interfering in Lebanon.
