following a series of meetings he held with various Lebanese officials, including pro- and anti-Syrian political leaders.
The active movement on the Beirut-Cairo front reflects new developments regarding the Egyptian role in Lebanon.
Despite the fact that the Egyptian leadership is adamant in conveying that its role is not an Egyptian intervention in internal Lebanese affairs, those concerned with the Lebanese issue in Cairo stress that Egypt seeks to provide Lebanon with an internal and regional cover. That cover would guarantee the country’s stability and prevent any attempts to escalate the Lebanese situation through any of the Lebanese, Palestinian and “fundamentalist gaps” spread in the country.
In turn, the concerned Egyptian leaderships do not wish to provide other sides with reason to intervene in Lebanon. This is being conveyed by Egypt to “others” through diplomatic efforts.
On the local level, all concerned politicians and leaders are aware that Egypt will not allow any regional party to move its supporters or allies in Lebanon in an effort to exert pressure or blackmail or even strengthen their negotiating position on any hot regional or international issue such as the Syrian-Israeli talks and the Iranian nuclear crisis.
In this regard, Cairo was keen to inform Lebanese officials and concerned regional parties through diplomatic channels, in particular Syria and Iran, that Egypt won’t stand handcuffed if both states insist on exploiting internal Lebanese differences pending the upcoming Israeli and U.S. elections, to issue messages to the west from Lebanon.
Egypt is careful to maintain regional balances in the Middle East. Any imbalance in Lebanon is seen by the Egyptian leadership to cause an imbalance in the region.
Egyptian officials dealing with the Lebanese issue said that the ball is in Syria’s court after statements by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri affirming “Egypt’s desire for returning and developing Syrian-Saudi relations,” and his reference to “a spring breeze between Damascus and Riyadh and the exchanged messages between Foreign Ministers Walid Mouallem and Saud al-Faisal.”
“The extent to which the Syrian position nears that of Egypt and Saudi Arabia on Lebanon, affairs in turn will return to normal between Cairo, Riyadh and Damascus,” one Egyptian source said.
“We want nothing from Syria. We don’t want it to pay any price. However, in return we don’t want Syria to exploit the internal Lebanese situation to weaken us, and later on move to pressure us from Lebanon via political and security issues that it knows very well.”
Egyptian sources explained that Cairo does not seek to “weaken Syria in Syria. However, we do not accept turning some security quarters in Lebanon either through direct or indirect Syrian auspices or negligence into a center for fugitive terrorists, and later re-export them to us and to our allies as is the case with Iraq.”
In the mind of the Egyptian leadership, the shortest route to ending all this is to close all the gaps that are exploited by terrorists and prevent them from turning Lebanon into their headquarters.
This requires an internal Lebanese consensus not to accept such externally designed role, to strengthen the Lebanese state and its institutions, to allow the state to exert its authority in word and deed over all its territory and to make the state the sole decision-maker over all those residing on it.
