Q: Do you feel Israel has betrayed the Lebanese people who served in SLA and those who lived in the South Lebanon territories known in Israel as a "security zone"?

A: Yes. The Israeli withdrawal was humiliating and disgraceful. It is a betrayal to Israel's Lebanese allies. It highlighted the difference in the way Syria and Israel treat and protect their allies. Israel's allies are on the run living as refugees in Israel or mistreated by Hezbollah or the Syrian-controlled Lebanese government inside occupied Lebanon. Syria's allies are the ruling class of Lebanon. This sends the message that to be an ally for Israel in the Middle East is detrimental and dangerous.

Q. From now, Syria has an almost total control over your country. What do you think will be the next step in this process' development?

A: I guess the border between Lebanon and Israel will remain calm for the time being. Hezbollah will enjoy its victory and will use the next few months to consolidate its power and demand a bigger share of the political pie. Syria and its controlled government in Beirut will be busy orchestrating the parliamentary elections this summer to "elect" an assembly that in turn will "elect" the next president of Lebanon and thus ensuring theoretically ten years of Syrian hegemony. Calm beyond the summer will depend on the future of the Middle East peace negotiations and the power struggle inside Syria, Iran and Lebanon.

The next step in this process development is:

For the Lebanese: To keep pushing for UN Res. 520 and calling much more aggressively for the withdrawal of all Syrian military and intelligence forces from Lebanon, especially given the fact that the Israelis are now out, thus no need for the Syrians to stay in Lebanon anymore.

For the Israelis: To wake up and realize that the policy of terror attacks against Hizbollah and the Lebanese infrastructure if Israel is attacked will lead nowhere. The Lebanese government will not act against Syrian interests and Syria will be willing to fight unto the last drop of Lebanese blood. When Israel accepts these facts, it will have to direct its firepower towards Syrian military targets.

Q. The talks over the Golan between Barak and Assad failed. Do you believe one day the peace agreement between Syria and Israel will be signed? How it will impact on the Lebanon issue?

A: I believe no peace treaty between Israel and Syria will be ever signed as long as Hafez Assad is in power. The man is more interested in the "process" rather than with peace itself.

Q. Do you believe the Palestinians in Lebanon will increase their activity in the military field? Will they be a menace for Israel's North?

A: The Palestinians of Lebanon will play a more active military role if the negotiations over the future of Jerusalem and the settlements were to fail. The pro-Arafat forces are in full control of the Palestinian camps.

Q. What do you think regarding the future Hizbullah - Lebanese Government and Hizbullah - Syrian Government relationships?

A: Regarding the Hizballah/Lebanese/Syrian relationship, many people suppose that Hizballah is a creature of Syria and Iran, created by them alone. The fact of the matter is that Hizballah also represents a sizable portion of the Shi'a population of South Lebanon who have been victimized by this policy of almost constant, daily Israeli bombing. So it is partly a national resistance movement to occupation. It has convinced the people of South Lebanon that it is protecting them, and in the meantime, Hizballah has developed into a formidable guerrilla force, in terms of the skill of its military operations, its equipment, its adaptability to Israeli tactics, its political leadership.

"Will Syria continue to support Hizballah? It depends on whether the withdrawal is total, it depends on whether Israel respects Lebanese airspace and its maritime waters. All these things will determine how Hizballah behaves. But I believe that tension will eventually mount between Syria and Hezbollah due to conflicting interests regarding the peace process, the Syrian-Iranian relations, the role of the Palestinian organizations in Lebanon and the size of Hizballah's political representation in the government. Even if Hizballah ceases its military operations, it will remain armed, because no peace has yet been concluded."

Q. In general, the Israel's withdrawal from the South Lebanon will ease tensions between Syria and Israel or will strengthen the confrontation?

A: I believe Syria will strive to prove to Israel that a unilateral withdrawal has not solved any of Israel's security problems. In order to get this message across, Syria could use either Hizballah splinter groups or the Syrian sponsored Palestinian terror organizations, such as Jibril's Front (PFLP-GC), Habash's Front (PFLP), the Saiqa, Fatah rebels and Islamic fundamentalist Palestinians in Lebanon, as well as other Lebanese organizations. It is safe to assume that Syria will instruct the Palestinian Opposition groups to continue, and even expand the armed struggle against Israel in order to convey the message to the Israeli public that only a deal on the Golan Heights will bring about complete calm to the area.

Q. Which steps will take USCFL in the nearest future? Will its policy change in some way?

A: The USCFL, the premier Lebanese-American lobbying organization in the U.S , will not change its stand and overall policy whatsoever. The USCFL is an organization committed to the fundamental values of Constitutional Democracy and the pursuit of freedom and independence from Syria which alone are able to bring genuine stability, prosperity, peace and security to Lebanon. Therefore, the USCFL will be utilizing all the resources at its disposal to promote the universal principles of free enterprise, limited government scope and involvement, individual freedom, strong and positive religious and traditional values, and an independent and sovereign government with a strong national defense for the nation of Lebanon and its beleaguered people.

Unlike other organizations dealing with Lebanon, the USCFL is not affiliated with any political faction in Lebanon or abroad and is funded solely by its membership. It is thus by far the most independent Lebanon-related NGO.

Last, we believe that only through furthering American interests in the region can true democracy be restored to Lebanon. Lebanon's fragile political system is too delicate to survive regional challenges without American involvement. The Middle East Intelligence Bulletin www.meib.org/ , a free monthly online publication of the USCFL , addresses all of the recent strategic and political developments in the Middle East and their impact on U.S. foreign policy.

Q. Under new circumstances, what do you expect from the future? Did Lebanese people get closer to their dream of free Lebanon?

A: I believe that as long as the Ba'athists regimes of Hafez Assad and Saddam Hussein are in power, the Middle East will never be at peace. On another note, I believe that as long as the weak and corrupt autocrats of the Gulf along with the egomaniac Iranian fundamentalists are secretly bankrolling dictators who claim to protect Arabism and who hate democracy, progress and change with a passion, the region will unfortunately never prosper.

What is needed? Well, I believe that what is needed most is a new generation of Lebanese and Arab leaders who strongly believe and understand that authentic leadership does not use and abuse people for personal aggrandizement, that giving too much power to one individual is detrimental to the leader and his followers, that authentic leadership comes from the people and serves the people selflessly, that position does not make you a leader but rather it is how you function that determines your leadership effectiveness.

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