Syrian troops pull out of most of north Lebanon
 
By Reuters
 
 
BEIRUT - As almost all Syrian troops left north Lebanon on Friday, the United Nations called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to present a timetable for the full withdrawal of his army and intelligence officers from Lebanon. The Syrian withdrawal weakens 29 years of solid military presence and underlines Syria's diminishing role in its small neighbor.
 
A day ahead of his meeting with the Syrian leader, UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said Friday that the UN expects President Bashar Assad to produce a timetable for the full withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence officers from Lebanon.

Speaking in Amman, where he sought Jordanian support for UN Security Council Resolution 1559 on Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon, Larsen indicated he was optimistic about his meeting with the Syrian president in Damascus on Saturday.

"I expect that we will get the commitment and timetables for the full implementation of 1559," Larsen told reporters after two hours of talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani al-Mulki.

When asked whether that meant the complete withdrawal of Syria's 14,000 troops
in Lebanon as well as its intelligence officers, Larsen responded: "I said 'full' and 'timetables'."

Larsen is also due to meet Lebanese officials in Beirut on Sunday.

Intelligence officers remain in Lebanon
A security source said the Syrians had not yet vacated two major intelligence offices and two military positions in and around the town of Tripoli, but could do so within 24 hours.

All other military positions, including a large base at an airstrip, were evacuated overnight and thousands of soldiers and hundreds of vehicles crossed into Syria, witnesses said.

Syrian forces first entered Lebanon in 1976 early in the civil war. Their numbers have declined to 14,000 from a peak of 40,000, but they had never before left positions in the north.

Syrian troops also continued to return home or move eastwards from the Beirut area in line with a phased withdrawal plan agreed this week amid intense global pressure on Damascus to lift its military and political grip on Lebanon.

Lebanon's pro-Syrian cabinet fell last week after an outcry over the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, but Omar Karami, the man who headed it, was asked on Thursday to form what he said would be a national unity government.

Anti-Syrian opposition leaders reacted coolly to that idea and said Karami's reappointment would only prolong political uncertainty ahead of parliamentary elections due by May.

"We don't think that this appointment gives the Lebanese hope," Druze leader Walid Jumblatt was quoted in the local press as saying during a visit to Moscow. He described the move as "a disappointment and an extension to the crisis."

A group of Christian MPs said: "Reinstating premier Omar Karami to form a new government after the opposition made its demands shows Syria's insistence on maintaining its tutelage policy that was rejected by the Lebanese."

Opposition leaders have said they wanted a cabinet excluding election candidates. They are also demanding a full Syrian pullout, the sacking of pro-Syrian security chiefs and an international inquiry into last month's assassination of Hariri.

Karami will start consulting political and religious leaders, including some in the opposition, on Monday, political sources said. Pro-Syrian ministers dominated his last cabinet.

The United States, which has been demanding that Syria end its involvement in Lebanon, criticized Karami's reappointment.

"Prime Minister Karami said when he resigned the first time that he was resigning because he couldn't be effective," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. "If ever there were a time that Lebanon needed effective government, that time is now."
 
 
Maranatha!
Deborah
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