Lebanonwire.com | UN envoy presses Syria on timetable for Lebanon troop pullout

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March 12, 2005

Syrian units head home to hero's welcome
by Adnane Zaka

JDAIDET YABOUS, Syria - In trucks, buses and armoured vehicles, Syrian army troops headed home across the Lebanese-Syrian border early Saturday, welcomed by a cheering crowd waving Syrian flags and shouting slogans in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

A convoy of 60 military vehicles carrying troops from the mountains overlooking Beirut passed through the Jdaidet Yabous border post 70 kilometers (45 miles) east of the Lebanese capital in blowing snow shortly after midnight.

Their return, witnessed by journalists at the invitation of the Syrian information ministry, marked a partial end to a near-30-year presence in Lebanon that had become increasingly contested by Lebanese opposition parties and the international community.

Jubilant young militants from Syria's ruling Baath Party and the Syrian National Social Party hurled carnations in the path of the returning soldiers and sang the Syrian national anthem.

In the hours before the convoy arrived, they hoisted portraits of Assad, beat drums and danced the dabke, a folk dance common to Syria and Lebanon.

Their banners procLaimed "Mission Accomplished," "God Protect You," "Our Army Is Victorious."

Also hailed by the militants was Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the pro-Syrian Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, who earlier this week addressed a huge rally in Beirut of parties sympathetic to Damascus.

Saturday's homecoming was not the first for Syrian forces but it was noteworthy because it coincided with the visit of a UN envoy seeking a timetable from Syrian authorities for the complete withdrawal of their troops from Lebanon.

Terje Roed-Larsen was expected to urge Assad to comply with last September's Security Council Resolution 1559 calling for the departure of all foreign troops.

International and Lebanese pressure for the withdrawal has been building since the February 14 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, for which many in Lebanon blame Syria. Syria has
repeatedly denied involvement.

Assad has pledged to bring the troops home without committing himself to a precise schedule.

But Syria has embarked on a redployment of its remaining 14,000 troops in Lebanon. Syrian units, according to Lebanese military sources, have now completely withdrawn from northern Lebanon, although leaving six offices used by Syrian intelligence services.

Nearly all Syrian contingents stationed in the mountains around Beirut have now left the area in the direction of the Bekka valley in eastern Lebanon."There are still some troops left and it will take a few days for them all to leave," a Lebanese military source said.

Saturday's troop movement was part of the redeployment of an estimated 6,000 troops that began Tuesday and was expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Syrian forces entered Lebanon in 1976 to serve as a buffer between warring Lebanese factions near the beginning of the country's 1975-1990 civil war and at one time had as many as 40,000 troops in the country.