Syria Promises To Leave Lebanon

Syria said Thursday it would be withdrawing troops to eastern Lebanon in a move designed to allay mounting world and Lebanese calls for Syria to remove all its forces from its western neighbor.

Both Syria and Lebanon, whose government confirmed the redeployment, gave no timeframe. The two governments indicated the Syrian troops would not leave Lebanon at this stage, and made clear the withdrawal toward the Lebanese-Syrian border would be on their own terms. Their statements referred to the 1989 Taif agreement that provides for Syrian soldiers to be stationed in the eastern Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border.

There was no sign Thursday night of any movement among Syria's 15,000 troops in Lebanon. At a Syrian intelligence post at Ramlet el-Baida, on the southern edge of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, a gun-wielding plainclothes Syrian agent stood outside one office, while another paced back and forth. Along the Beirut-Damascus highway near the mountain town of Aley, Syrian soldiers collected their dinner from a truck.

"The decision to withdraw has been taken," Lebanese Defense Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad told the local New TV channel. "What remains is the exact timing."

A pullback could start as early as Saturday, said one senior Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Murad said Lebanese and Syrian military officers were meeting to define "the dates and the way" of the withdrawal. He stressed it was in line with the Arab-brokered Taif accord.

Both Syria and the pro-Syrian government in Lebanon are anxious not to be seen to be caving in to September's U.N. Security Council resolution that effectively called on Syria to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon and to end its political interference in the country.

While the redeployment promised Thursday falls a long way short of U.N. demands, which were endorsed by U.S. President George W. Bush last week, it was still a significant attempt to ease pressure from the world and from those Lebanese who are angry with Syria and their government for the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Israel, Syria's arch foe, welcomed the announcement. Egypt said that Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa would be coming to Cairo at an unspecified date to discuss the issue. Egypt sent its intelligence chief to Damascus on Wednesday for talks on the matter.

A team dispatched by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to investigate the assassination arrived in Beirut late Thursday. The three-member team, headed by Ireland's Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, was expected to inspect the central Beirut scene of the bombing and to meet with Lebanese investigators.

Lebanon has rejected the international inquiry that the United States and France have demanded, but it has expressed a willingness to cooperate with foreign investigators.

The killing of Hariri, who was credited with rebuilding Lebanon after the 1975-90 civil war, provoked mass demonstrations against Syria. Lebanese opposition leaders accused the government and Syria of playing a role in the assassination — a charge strongly denied by both governments. The opposition has now pledged to bring down the government in a no-confidence motion in parliament on Monday.

Some opposition figures dismissed Thursday's withdrawal statement as vague. Samir Franjieh said the announcement did not refer to a complete pullout from Lebanon.

It was not clear whether the withdrawal would mean the removal of the Syrian intelligence officers whom the opposition accuses of meddling in Lebanese politics.

Syrian troops are currently based on the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean coast to the west and in the eastern Bekaa Valley. They also have positions along the north Lebanese coast around Tripoli, the country's second-largest city.

The bulk of the Syrian garrison — which once numbered 35,000 — has been withdrawn from the coastal areas in redeployments since 2000. The last withdrawal was in December when Syrian security agents vacated posts at Beirut International Airport and in the north of the country.

The Bekaa is of strategic military importance to Syria, which is technically at war with Israel. In 1982, Israeli troops invading Lebanon drove the Syrian army out of large swaths of the valley and set up bases on Syria's western frontier. The Lebanese border is only a 20-minute drive from Damascus, the Syrian capital.

Syria, which sent its army into Lebanon in 1976 amid a civil war, has for many years pledged to implement that Taif agreement. But significant parts of the accord have never been implemented: a withdrawal of all Syria forces to the Bekaa — which the accord scheduled for the early 1990s, and a later total pullout from Lebanon.

In its statement Thursday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said its soldiers would not all leave Lebanon immediately because "speeding up the pace of withdrawals requires enabling the Lebanese army and internal security forces to fill the vacuum that could take place in a way that does not undermine the security of Lebanon and Syria."

The Lebanese government has also said that it could be destabilizing to implement the U.N. resolution calling for a total Syrian withdrawal.

By Sam F. Ghattas