BEIRUT, 12 March 2005 — A worsening political crisis may threaten the Lebanese parliamentary polls due by May as the last Syrian troops in north Lebanon left for home yesterday.
Thousands of soldiers and hundreds of vehicles streamed across the Syrian border after an overnight pullout. By noon the Syrians had vacated all army posts in the north, witnesses said.
Some intelligence offices were evacuated, although one was still manned in the city of Tripoli, a security source 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 abandoned the north.
Syrian troops also continued to return home or move eastward 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.
It was not clear how many Syrian soldiers have gone home since the redeployment began on Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the movement of Syrian troops in Lebanon was “clearly not a bad thing but it is also not compliance” with UN Resolution 1559, which calls for the full withdrawal of Syrian forces.
In an interview, Rice said she hoped Karami’s naming was a “temporary” measure.
UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, due to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus today, said he expected Syria to provide a firm timetable for a total troop withdrawal from Lebanon as demanded by Security Council Resolution 1559.
“I’m looking forward for a good dialogue and of course I expect that we will get commitments and timetables for a full implementation of 1559,” he told reporters in Amman.
Larsen is expected to meet Lebanese officials tomorrow.
In Beirut, the opposition indicated it would spurn a call by reinstated pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami for a national unity government, setting the stage for a political standoff that could force the general election to be postponed.
Lebanon’s pro-Syrian Cabinet fell last week after an outcry over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, but Karami was reappointed on Thursday in a move opposition leaders said would only prolong political uncertainty.
Opposition Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, visiting Moscow, said Karami’s reinstatement was “a disappointment and an extension to the crisis”, while a group of Christian MPs said it “shows Syria’s insistence on maintaining its tutelage policy”.
A pro-Syrian political source warned of a power vacuum that could force the authorities to postpone the election. “The initial reactions of the opposition indicate a refusal to join the government and thus we’re heading to a government crisis ... which would indirectly scrap the elections,” said the source, who asked not to be identified.
A government must be formed soon to allow Parliament to issue a law organizing the elections at least a month before they begin. Otherwise the polls would have to be rescheduled.
Opposition leaders have said they want 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.
— With input from agencies
