Posted on 03/15/2005 6:23:34 AM PST by Pikamax
Syrian agents start Beirut pullout Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:45 PM GMT
By Nadim Ladki
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian intelligence agents have begun evacuating their headquarters in Beirut, partially meeting a key U.S. and Lebanese opposition demand for an end to three decades of Syria's tutelage over its neighbour.
Witnesses said on Tuesday the Syrians were loading equipment from the headquarters in the Ramlet al-Baida district onto two pick-up trucks and removing pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his late father Hafez from around the building.
Syria's often feared intelligence presence has been a key element in its political and military influence on Lebanon since its troops first intervened early in the 1975-90 civil war.
For now Syrian intelligence retains its Lebanon headquarters in the Bekaa Valley town of Anjar, but the closure of the Beirut office indicated that Syrian forces have almost completed the first phase of a withdrawal from Lebanon announced 10 days ago.
"Our view is that there needs to be a complete withdrawal of all Syrian military forces and intelligence services as soon as possible," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Monday after cautiously welcoming news of Syrian pullout pledges.
Around 3,000 pro-Syrian students chanting "Death to America" marched on the U.S. embassy near Beirut, burning Israeli and American flags and denouncing what they said was Washington's interference in Lebanese affairs.
Waving Lebanese flags, the crowd, who included supporters of the Hizbollah guerrilla group, chanted: "Ambassader leave, keep our country free", in reference to U.S. envoy Jeffery Feltman.
Scores of Lebanese soldiers and riot police, backed by armoured troop carriers, put up metal barricades and barbed wire to keep the protesters away from the embassy complex in Awkar, north of Beirut, but the protest went off peacefully.
The dismantling of the intelligence headquarters and another Syrian intelligence office in Beirut coincided with a visit to Damascus by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and with efforts by Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister to form a unity government to defuse the country's worst political crisis in 15 years.
Mubarak, whose trip was not announced in advance, met Assad, who is under intense Lebanese, Arab and world pressure to withdraw Syrian forces from Lebanon.
Syria's official news agency said they discussed "the Lebanese arena" but gave no details. Mubarak later flew home.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?
Lebanese security sources say the Syrians will complete the first stage of their pullout in the next couple of days. More than 4,000 soldiers returned to Syria last week, while 2,000 more were redeploying to Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley.
Syria agreed to move its troops after the February 14 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri sparked fierce anti-Syrian protests in Beirut and global calls for the Syrians to leave.
Pro-Syrian Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami started talks on forming a government of national unity, a challenging task made even harder by a huge anti-Syrian demonstration that turned central Beirut into a sea of flags and banners on Monday.
Karami, forced to resign on February 28 but reappointed last week, began meeting politicians and parliamentary blocs on the make-up of a new cabinet to lead Lebanon to elections in May.
Opposition hostility makes his task almost impossible. Failure could delay the parliamentary polls because a new government must be in place to ask the assembly to pass an electoral law at least a month before the election.
Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving anti-Syrian protesters flooded central Beirut on Monday in Lebanon's biggest rally since Hariri's assassination in a bomb blast a month earlier.
Several opposition leaders, including Druze chief Walid Jumblatt, called for the resignation of Lahoud and Lebanon's Syrian-backed security chiefs, whom they accuse of playing a part in Hariri's death. Damascus denies any involvement.
The rally, which followed large counter-demonstrations called by the Shi'ite Hizbollah guerrilla group, underline deep rifts among the Lebanese despite the planned departure of Syrian troops who have held the ring in Lebanon since 1976.
After weekend talks in Damascus and Beirut, U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said Syria had promised to withdraw all its troops and intelligence agents in line with a U.N. resolution.
The Syrians had better hustle. Those crowds of Nationalistic Lebanese are rather large and emotional. Stirring that pot would be a mistake.
The report on FOX this morning said that the Syrians were moving out under the protection of Lebanese police. I found it interesting that the Syrians needed protection from the Lebanese who are supposed to love them so much.
As as some of the Syrians pull out, the ones who are left are going to be in some jeopardy, IMO. Hopefully, they'll all decide to go in short order.
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