All Syrian Forces to Leave Lebanon by April 30

Sun Apr 3, 2005 08:59 AM ET

By Inal Ersan

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - 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 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Farouq al-Shara had told him that "all Syrian troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus will have been withdrawn fully and completely latest by April 30, 2005."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.

"POSITIVE IMPETUS"

Lebanese opposition leaders have accused Syria or the Lebanese security agencies that it backs of responsibility for Hariri's death. Damascus denies any involvement.

"I do hope that the agreement and understandings we've reached today in Damascus will give a positive impetus into Lebanon in the sense that elections will take place speedily and ...these elections should be free and fair," said Roed-Larsen.

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 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 Saturday, a Syrian official source said.

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