Killing seen as bid by Damascus, Tehran to hit U.S. role in Mideast

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The brazen assassination yesterday of Christian Cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel has pushed Lebanon's fragile democracy, heralded by the United States as a model for the region, to the brink of collapse.

Coming amid moves by Syria and Iran to improve relations with Iraq, the killing also was seen by analysts as part of a coordinated attempt to push the United States out of the Middle East.

"This is part of a broader effort on the part of Syrians and Iranians in their own isolation to prove they have leverage over events in the region and to minimize the role of the U.S. in the region," said former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, Marc Ginsberg.

Suspicion immediately focused on Syria, which stands to be deeply embarrassed by a proposed international tribunal that would investigate its suspected role in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005.

The U.N. Security Council approved plans for the tribunal hours after the killing yesterday, but it must still be approved by a weakened Lebanese government.

"We can add this to the list of Syrian killings of anti-Syrians in Lebanon," said David Schenker of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Mr. Gemayel was the fifth anti-Syrian figure killed in the past two years.

"There is obviously a concern that a U.N. investigation would be so thorough and comprehensive it will get to the bottom of who killed Hariri and the other murders in Lebanon, and obviously there are some people very nervous about that," Mr. Schenker said.

Syrian officials denied any involvement in the latest assassination, which rattled a Lebanese government already battered by a wave of Cabinet resignations and the threat of street demonstrations by Hezbollah.

"Syria had nothing to do with this," said Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari.

But Amal Mudallali, foreign affairs adviser to the head of Lebanon's largest parliamentary faction, said Mr. Gemayal's killing had been carefully planned.