Syria Hints At Lebanon Withdrawal
The Arab League chief said Monday that Syria will "soon" take steps to withdraw its army from Lebanese areas in accordance with a 1989 agreement, but it was not clear whether that meant Syria would completely leave Lebanon as demanded by the international community.
The announcement by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa came after a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"Assad stressed more than once his firm determination to go on with implementing the Taif agreement and achieve Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in accordance with this agreement," Moussa said.
"Syrian withdrawal is part of Syrian policy and we will see steps in this direction very soon," Moussa said.
Calls on Syria to pull its forces out of Lebanon as demanded by the United Nations, France and the United States have become louder since the Feb. 14 assassination in Beirut of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Speaking in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, U.S. President George W. Bush said Syria must end its occupation of Lebanon.
The Lebanese opposition blames Syria and its allied government in Beirut for the assassination and on Monday tens of thousands of protesters converged in Beirut to condemn Damascus and demand a withdrawal of its army.
Syria's official news agency SANA said talks between Assad and Moussa dealt with the "ongoing developments on the Arab arena" but made no mention of a withdrawal from Lebanon.
Moussa said Assad showed great interest in the outcome of the investigation into Hariri's assassination and welcomed a U.N. mission that would participate in the investigation.
"Assad said it's in the interest of all that investigation be done as quickly as possible, so that the Lebanese be calmed and be satisfied," Moussa said.
Hariri was one of the architects of the 1989 Taif agreement that ended Lebanon's civil war, which started in 1975. It called for political reforms to satisfy Lebanon's various religious communities and for Syrian forces — which had entered Lebanon ostensibly to separate between the warring sides — to withdraw within two years to the eastern Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. A total withdrawal was to be discussed between the Lebanese and Syrian governments at a later stage.
Syrian forces have redeployed several times since 2000, leaving Beirut and the coastline. Syria currently maintains about 15,000 troops in Lebanon. Syria's critics in Lebanon have said the withdrawals were tactical and demanded a total pullout and an end to Syrian military intelligence involvement in the country's politics.
The United Nations, in a Sept. 2, 2004, resolution, demanded a full withdrawal, and the call has been repeated by Washington and Paris since Hariri's assassination. The U.S. Congress also adopted anti-Syrian measures and U.S. President George W. Bush imposed sanctions on Damascus last year.