DAMASCUS, 8 March 2005 — Syria will move all its troops in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley by the end of this month, and the joint Lebanese-Syrian Military Committee will decide within one month when the forces will be finally withdrawn to the Syrian side of the border.
The announcement, which did not specify the time when the troops will finally leave Lebanon, was made here yesterday after a meeting between Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud.
The pullback would be the biggest single such move since Syrian forces intervened in Lebanon’s civil war in 1976. It now has some 14,000 troops there, down from 40,000.
The United States has demanded the departure of all Syrian troops and intelligence agents before Lebanon’s May general election.
Washington reacted warily to the announcement and demanded that Syria withdraw its forces “completely and immediately.” “We stand with the Lebanese people and the Lebanese people, I think, are speaking very clearly. They want a future that is sovereign, independent and free from outside influence and intimidation,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
At the State Department, spokesman Adam Ereli said that until Syrian forces and intelligence agents are out of Lebanon, a full withdrawal under the terms of a UN Security Council resolution “is not respected.”
In September, the Security Council passed Resolution 1559, drafted by the United States and France, calling on Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, stop influencing politics in the country and allow Lebanon to hold presidential elections as scheduled.
Syria’s ambassador to the United States said in Washington that Damascus will withdraw its troops to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in a few weeks. A full troop withdrawal will come in “less than two or three months,” Ambassador Imad Moustapha told CNN.
Germany, France and Britain urged Syria to move swiftly. “We expect Syria to withdraw its troops and security services completely and as quickly as possible,” German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac said in a joint statement.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said separately that Syria’s move was welcome as a “first step”, adding: “We expect to see rapid progress to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the whole of Lebanon” in line with the UN resolution.
Even while Bashar and Lahoud were meeting, Syrian soldiers based in the Lebanese mountain towns of Hamana, Mdairij, Soufar and Aley were dismantling communications equipment or loading military gear and belongings onto army trucks, witnesses said.
Some trucks with equipment and a few dozen soldiers from several posts headed eastward. Other troops stayed behind.
Lebanese army soldiers waited in trucks near a Syrian military post at Dahr Al-Wahsh east of Beirut as the Syrian troops prepared to leave.
Keeping up the intense pressure as their president met with Bashar, tens of thousands of Lebanese united in a massive demonstration. “Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!” shouted the young and old, rallying under a sea of waving flags and anti-Syrian fervor.
At least 70,000 people — some estimates put the figure at 100,000 or even double that number — thronged downtown Beirut, buoyed by their success in forcing the resignation of the government exactly a week ago in a demonstration of 25,000.
Most of the crowd waved Lebanon’s red and white flag, distinctive with the green cedar tree in the center. “Syria out!” was the most regular cry. Many also raised photographs of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose assassination three weeks ago Monday triggered the angry, though peaceful, protests which the anti-Syrian opposition dubbed “independence uprising.”
— Additional input from agencies
