Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud said on Wednesday that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's report on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, "is just a report and not a resolution." Hammoud was commenting on the report, which Annan had presented to members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday. Hammoud added: "According to the available information that we have received, the UN Security Council will convene Thursday to discuss Annan's report, and will either issue a presidential statement or a presidential press release on the matter." In accordance with the UN charter's provisions, unless the report is turned into a resolution, Lebanon will not be bound by it. Hammoud continued: "We will continue discussing this matter with the UN to clarify our stand."In the report Annan had said Syria had "considerable leverage over Lebanese domestic affairs," during its almost three-decade-long military presence in Lebanon. On Tuesday, Syria completed its withdrawal from Lebanon, which Hammoud said will be verified by a UN commission "that will document the withdrawal through maps it has received from Syria and field trips it plans to conduct in collaboration with Lebanese experts." The team of military experts were expected to arrive in Lebanon from Damascus late Wednesday, and will deliver their report on the withdrawal to Annan in the coming days.
Despite being formally informed by the Syrian government that Syrian troops have withdrawn from Lebanon, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559, Annan said there had been "no progress to date" made on fully implementing the resolution. This was a clear reference to the failure of Lebanese authorities to disarm either the militias inside the Palestinian refugee camps or the Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah. Hammoud said regarding Hizbullah's disarmament: "We the government have confirmed our stand; we support the resistance and consider it a Lebanese internal affair. Hizbullah is not a militia. It is a national resistance movement established and maintained to defend Lebanon and the Lebanese occupied territories in the South."