| Syrian troops
likely leaving Lebanon before elections: Syrian minister  WASHINGTON
- Syria's troops will probably pull out of Lebanon before legislative elections scheduled
for May, Syrian Expatriates Minister Bussaina Shaaban said Sunday.
"I think the troops will meet a very fast timetable," Shaaban told CNN.
"The elections will take place and I think the troops will move out of Lebanon
probably before then," she added. "I don't know how logistically possible it's
going to be, but probably before then."
Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, on Tuesday said the troops would
leave long before May.
Special UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen on Saturday disclosed after a meeting with Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad that the Syrian leader has agreed to remove all his military and
intelligence personnel from Lebanon.
No date for the withdrawal was disclosed, however.
Shaaban said the withdrawal would take place under the Taef agreement, which ended
Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
The accord called for an initial redeployment of Syrian troops in the Bekaa valley in
eastern Lebanon and left it to the Lebanese and Syrian governments to determine the
duration of the Syrian military presence as a whole.
"The first stage (of Syrian withdrawal) will be completed by the end of March, and
then the people from the two armies will meet and set the time for the second stage, which
I think will be as soon as is logistically possible for the army to move," Shaaban
said.
"The important thing ... is that the Syrian leadership has taken the decision to
withdraw the Syrian troops according to the Taef agreement, and it will be done as soon as
possible."
|
