Syria vowed on Saturday to completely and quickly withdraw its troops from Lebanon in two phases, but President Bashar al-Assad said 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 a positive start. But Washington said the pullout plan was not enough 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, while Resolution 1559, adopted last September by the U.N. Security Council at the initiative of the United States and France, calls for foreign troops to quit Lebanon.
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."
