All Syrian Forces to Leave Lebanon by April 30

Sun Apr 3,12:32 PM ET
World - Reuters

By Inal Ersan

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria has promised to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon by April 30 and will let a United Nations team verify the pullout, a U.N. envoy said Sunday.

Damascus ordered the withdrawal, demanded by a U.N. Security Council resolution seven months ago, after coming under intense international pressure over the Feb. 14 assassination of a Lebanese former prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri.

The U.N. envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara had told him "all Syrian troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus will have been withdrawn fully and completely ... by April 30, 2005."

Roed-Larsen was speaking at a joint news conference with Shara after talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

"Syria has agreed that subject to the acceptance of the Lebanese authorities a U.N. verification team will be dispatched to verify the (full withdrawal)," said Roed-Larsen. A Syrian source said the team would report to the U.N. envoy.

Lebanese opposition figures hailed the announcement, which fulfilled one of their key demands.

Syria first sent troops to Lebanon in 1976, early in its 1975-90 civil war, but in recent years had reduced numbers to about 14,000 from a peak of 40,000.

U.N. Resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States and France, demanded the departure of all foreign forces, the disbanding of all Lebanese militias and respect for Lebanon's political independence.

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