- Title: SYRIA: DAMASCUS PROMISES TO WITHDRAW ALL SYRIAN FORCES FROM LEBANON BY APRIL 30TH
- Date: 3rd April 2005
- Summary: (W3) DAMASCUS, SYRIA (APRIL 3, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. NEWS CONFERENCE WITH U.N. ENVOY, TERJE ROED-LARSEN AND SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER FAROUQ AL-SHARA (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. SOUNDBITE (English) U.N. ENVOY, TERJE ROED-LARSEN, SAYING: "The government of Syria through President Assad has informed me today that Syria, as a first step redeployed all its troops to
- Embargoed: 18th April 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: DAMASCUS, SYRIA
- Country: Syria
- Reuters ID: LVA54ESW0AU9SQ3F86PTZAN886UY
- Story Text: Syria has promised to withdraw all its forces from
Lebanon by April 30.
Syria has promised to withdraw all its forces from
Lebanon by April 30 and will let a United Nations team
verify the pullout, a U.N. envoy said on Sunday.
Damascus ordered the withdrawal, demanded by a Security
Council resolution seven months ago, after coming under
intense international pressure over the Feb. 14
assassination of a Lebanese former prime minister, Rafik
al-Hariri.
The U.N. envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, said Syrian Foreign
Minister Farouq al-Shara had told him that "all Syrian
troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus will
have been withdrawn fully and completely latest by April
30, 2005".
Roed-Larsen was speaking at a joint news conference
with Shara after talks with President Bashar al-Assad in
Damascus.
"Syria has agreed that subject to the acceptance of the
Lebanese authorities a U.N. verification team will be
dispatched to verify the full Syrian military and
intelligence withdrawal," the U.N. official said.
Syria first sent troops to Lebanon in 1976, early in
its 1975-90 civil war, but in recent years had reduced
their numbers to about 14,000 from a peak of 40,000.
U.N. Resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States
and France, demanded the departure of all foreign forces,
the disbanding of all Lebanese militias and respect for
Lebanon's political independence.
"Syria by its full withdrawal from Lebanon would have
implemented its part of resolution 1559," Shara said.
The declared timetable means all Syrian forces will
have left before Lebanon holds parliamentary elections. The
polls were due to have taken place in May, but might be
pushed back because of political turmoil since Hariri's
killing.
Lebanese opposition leaders have accused Syria or the
Lebanese security agencies that it backs of responsibility
for Hariri's death. Damascus denies any involvement.
Shara voiced support for the elections, which he said
should be held "at the time agreed among the Lebanese".
Last month Assad announced plans for a two-phase troop
withdrawal from Lebanon within the framework of the 1990
Taif Accord which ended the Lebanese civil war.
The first stage, under which all Syrian forces pulled
back to the eastern Bekaa Valley and some crossed the
border, was completed last month. More have left since
then.
Roed-Larsen said he was informed that Syria had
withdrawn 4,000 troops and closed its security offices in
Beirut.
Dozens of Syrian military trucks and some tanks on
transporters rolled out of Lebanon on Sunday, witnesses
said.
A Lebanese-Syrian military committee met in Beirut and
Damascus in the last few days to agree on the withdrawal
timetable and Lebanese army chief General Michel Suleiman
met Assad in Damascus on Saturday, a Syrian official source
said.
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