4, April 2005	Monday	24 Safar 1426

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DAMASCUS, April 3: Syria has pledged to complete its troop withdrawal from Lebanon by the end of this month, bringing to a close almost 30 years of military presence in the country, UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said on Sunday.

Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara “informed me that all Syrian troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus will have withdrawn fully and completely latest by April 30”, Roed-Larsen told reporters in Damascus.

“The government of Syria has agreed with me that, subject to acceptance by the Lebanese authorities, a verification team will be dispatched in order to verify the full Syrian withdrawal,” he added.

Roed-Larsen said the completion of the withdrawal would be “consistent with” Resolution 1559, passed last September, which calls for all foreign troops to leave Lebanon and for Beirut to establish its sovereignty over the whole of Lebanese territory.

Mr Shara, who also attended the news conference, echoed Roed-Larsen’s words. “By completely withdrawing (from Lebanon), Syria will have applied the part of Resolution 1559 that concerns it,” he said.

Syria first deployed troops in Lebanon 29 years ago as a buffer force during the early stages of the 1975-1990 civil war.

“Relations between Syria and Lebanon are built on national and ethnic bases which cannot be cancelled by the withdrawal of Syrian forces,” Mr Shara said. “The security of both countries is linked.”

In Lebanon, the anti-Syrian opposition welcomed the setting of a deadline for the last Syrian soldier to leave the country.

“It is a positive development in the Lebanese crisis. It meets one of the main demands of the opposition,” said Christian MP Nassib Lahoud. “We hope it turns a new page in Lebanese-Syrian relations on an equal basis.”

And Syria’s acceptance of an international supervision of the pullout added a legal dimension to the operation, he said.

Mr Shara also emphasized that Syria supported the “holding of (Lebanese) elections on the planned date” — by the end of May — as demanded by the opposition in Lebanon.

Damascus on Tuesday promised its last soldiers would be out before the elections.

But the holding of elections on time has been cast into doubt with Lebanon plunged into its worst political crisis since the end of the civil war by the assassination on Feb 14 of former premier Rafiq Hariri.

The killing, which many Lebanese blamed on power-broker Syria, sparked massive public protests which led to the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karameh and put the heat on Damascus to comply with Resolution 1559.

The Lebanese opposition fears that pro-Syrian politicians, who currently hold power in the country, will seek to delay elections fearing a voter backlash because of Hariri’s killing which has gone unclaimed.

A spate of bombings in Christian opposition areas over the past two weeks has added to a climate of insecurity.

Roed-Larsen met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday morning and held talks which he described as “cordial, constructive and practical”. He was to travel on to Beirut for talks on Monday. On March 5, Assad pledged a two-staged pullout from Lebanon.

The first phase was completed on March 17 with a pullout of some 4,000 troops and redeployment to the eastern Bekaa Valley, from where more Syrian soldiers have over the past 10 days been heading home across the border.

Turning to the Arab-Israeli peace process, Mr Shara made it clear that Beirut would not be allowed to pursue a separate deal, ruling out Israeli-Lebanese peace negotiations without Syrian involvement.—AFP