Pro-Syria Parties Voice Support for Assad and Allegedly ‘Instigate’ Damascus against March 14

Syria’s allies in Lebanon have expressed their firm support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, as the neighboring country faces unprecedented protests demanding the end of nearly 50 years of emergency rule.

"Today, we stand yet again by our sister Syria ... and by Syria's leaders who have refused to give into pressure or ... to conspire against the resistance," Hizbullah MP Nawaf Moussawi said on Monday during a press conference entitled "In solidarity with Syria against the American-Zionist-Western plot to undermine its national, pan-Arab and resistance role."

"We are certain Syria will overcome this passing phase," he said at the Commodore Hotel in Beirut. "There is no stability in Lebanon without stability in Syria, no security in Lebanon without security in Syria."

The conference was attended by pro-Syrian Lebanese politicians of all faiths.

Speaker Nabih Berri’s aide, Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil, said Syrian support for Lebanon had allowed the country to deal with any obstacle it might face.

“If it wasn’t for Bashar Assad’s Syria and Hafez Assad’s Syria, Lebanon would not be a country of resistance,” said Khalil.

Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali also attended the conference. He warned on Friday that "any harm done to Syria will also harm Lebanon with the same magnitude or even more" -- a statement that provoked the ire of the March 14 forces.

An Nahar daily on Tuesday quoted sources as saying that the March 8 forces present at the conference instigated Damascus against March 14 on one side and sought to put President Michel Suleiman in a difficult situation by urging him to “assume his national responsibilities by putting a stop to dangerous violations.”

The conferees were referring to allegations that al-Mustaqbal MP Jamal al-Jarrah was funding and arming anti-Assad protesters in cities across Syria.

The statement of the March 8 forces urged Suleiman to give orders to the judiciary to investigate the issue with “the involved Lebanese political parties,” in reference to Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal movement.

Among the speakers at Monday’s news conference were former Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli and former head of the Phalange Party Karim Pakradouni.(Naharnet-AFP)