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Syria declines timetable on Lebanon pullout, UN says
AFP 1/10/04: UNITED NATIONS : Syria has not
complied with a UN Security Council demand to pull its troops out of
Lebanon and said it cannot give a timetable for doing so, UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan reported. After studying progress on a council
resolution last month calling for all foreign troops to get out of the
country, Annan said Lebanon and Syria had both indicated that the soldiers
were there at Beirut's request. "The government of Syria has informed me
that it cannot provide me with numbers and timetables for any future
withdrawal," Annan said in the report, released to the press. "The
requirements on the various parties set out in resolution 1559 have not
been met," he said. "The governments of both Lebanon and Syria have told
me that the Syrian forces present in Lebanon ... are there at the
invitation of Lebanon and that their presence is therefore by mutual
agreement," Annan said. The report was issued just hours after an apparent
assassination attempt in Beirut on Lebanon's outgoing Economy and Trade
Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the
Syrian presence.
The minister's bodyguard was killed and his driver was injured in the bomb
attack. The United States and France pressed hard for the UN Security
Council to adopt a resolution last month after a constitutional amendment
allowed President Emile Lahoud, a Syrian protege, to stay for an extra
term in office. The resolution, which was adopted by the bare minimum of
nine votes in favour with six abstentions, made no specific reference to
Syria but was clearly aimed at Damascus.
Syria is the powerbroker in its smaller neighbour, where it maintains an
estimated 14,000 troops, a holdover from a larger contingent sent in
during Lebanon's brutal 1975-1990 civil war. "The withdrawal of foreign
forces and the disbandment and disarmament of militias would, with
finality, end that sad chapter of Lebanese history," Annan said,
mentioning also Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended
in 2000. "It is time, 14 years after the end of hostilities and four years
after the Isreli withdrawal from Lebanon, for all parties concerned to set
aside the remaining vestiges of the past," the UN chief said.
Public opinion "appears to be divided" over the Syrian troops but many
believe a pullout "would be in the interest not just of Lebanon, but of
Syria too, and of the region and the wider international community," he
said.
But Annan said that both the Lebanese and Syrian governments had
repeatedly declined any interference by Damascus in its neighbour's
internal affairs. "The government of Lebanon has stated to me that its
ultimate goal is the complete withdrawal of all foreign forces from
Lebanese territory," he said. He said Beirut also said it "intends that
all irregular armed groups ultimately be disarmed and disbanded," in a
clear reference to the militant group Hezbollah, whose guerrilla war
helped end the Israeli occupation. There had been no change in the status
of the organisation, a powerful force in the south since the Israelis left,
since the resolution was passed, Annan said. - AFP
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