************************************************
|
2 hours, 6 minutes ago
|
|
By Inal Ersan
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria vowed a complete and swift two-phased withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon but President Bashar al-Assad said on Saturday Damascus would still play a role in the tiny neighbor it has dominated for 30 years.
|
||||||||
Lebanese greeted Assad's announcement with screams of delight in central Beirut, while opposition figures in Lebanon and European leaders cautiously described the move as positive.
But Washington, which says Syrian "support for terrorism" impedes Middle East peace, dismissed the pullout plan as inadequate and reiterated its call for a complete and immediate withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.
After mounting international pressure and faced with daily protests inside Lebanon to end its security presence there, Assad told parliament Syrian troops would initially pull back to the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and then to the border area.
"By this measure Syria would have fulfilled its commitment toward the Taif Accord and implemented (U.N. Security Council) Resolution 1559," he said.
The Taif Accord ended Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and, among other points, stipulated the withdrawal of Syrian troops from most of the country within two years. Resolution 1559, adopted last September by the U.N. Security Council at the initiative of the United States and France, called for foreign troops to quit Lebanon completely.
Elaborating on Assad's announcement, Syrian cabinet minister Buthaina Shaaban said her country's troops would withdraw to the Syrian side of the border.
"The Syrian army wants to pull out quickly ... as soon as possible logistically," Shaaban told Lebanon's LBC television. "The political decision has been taken for a complete withdrawal."
She said a meeting between the two countries' leaders on Monday would agree on the details, including the timing.
Assad said Syria, which first deployed troops in Lebanon in 1976, would not relinquish its role in the country.
"Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon does not mean the absence of Syria's role (in Lebanon)," Assad said. "Syria's strength and its role in Lebanon is not dependent on the presence of its forces in Lebanon."
"Withdrawal does not damage Syrian interests. On the contrary it fosters Syrian interests ... That is why we began withdrawing five years ago and have withdrawn 63 percent of the forces," Assad added.
MIXED REACTION
Syrian troops have been in Lebanon since intervening in its civil war in the 1970s, and currently has about 14,000 troops there, down from 40,000.
It has carried out five redeployments since 2000, pulling some forces to the Bekaa and some back to Syria, but has maintained forces in and around Beirut and in northern Lebanon.
Damascus has viewed Lebanon as a strategic asset and key economic outlet for decades. Nationalists in Damascus have traditionally seen Lebanon as a rightful part of Syria sliced off by French-British colonial machinations.
But Syria has come under growing Lebanese, Arab and international pressure to quit Lebanon since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri last month. Many have pointed the finger at Syria, which denies any role.
Lebanon's main opposition leader Walid Jumblatt said Assad's speech was a "positive start ... Our hands are extended with the insistence on a timetable for the withdrawal."
Christian opposition figure, former President Amin Gemayel, with caution. "What is dangerous is this deployment on the borders. We have information that the Syrian army will stay in the mountain range within the Lebanese border," Gemayel said.
The United States, Syria's most vocal critic, said Assad's pledge to pull back had not gone far enough.
"We mean complete withdrawal -- no half-hearted measures," said White House spokeswoman Erin Healy, repeating the phrase State Department spokeswoman Darla Jordan had used earlier.
Russia, Britain and the European Union (news - web sites) expressed satisfaction with Assad's announcement, saying it was a first step toward a full withdrawal.
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said he had asked his special envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, to travel to Beirut and Damascus this week to discuss the "full, complete and immediate implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559."
DEMONSTRATIONS IN SYRIA, LEBANON
Five days after celebrating the fall of the country's Syrian-backed government, Lebanese flocked to Martyrs' Square in Beirut to hail another "concession" late into the night.
"I am very happy and excited," Collette Hajj said. "I hope we will achieve true independence, as long as we stay here and keep demanding it."
Many protesters, waving Lebanese flags, decried the absence of any reference to the demand for dismantling Syria's pervasive security role in Lebanon. The Syrian intelligence service has been under intense fire from Lebanon's opposition figures who accused its officers of running the country.
But not everyone was celebrating. Hundreds took to the streets in several Lebanese towns to declare support for Syria.
Fifteen years after the end of civil war, Lebanon remains divided between its Christians, Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. Some Lebanese worry a Syrian pullout might end in renewed internal conflict.
In Damascus, thousands of Syrians gathered outside parliament to back Assad before and during his speech.
"One, one, one, Lebanon and Syria are one," several thousand Syrians, some carrying pictures of Assad and Syrian flags, chanted outside parliament in the build-up to the address. (Additional reporting by Nadim Ladki and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Beirut, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Gilles Castonguay in Brussels, Lin Nueihed in Damascus; and Caren Bohan in Washington)