Saturday, March 05, 2005
Syria caves?
"We will withdraw our forces stationed in Lebanon fully to the Bekaa region (in the east) and later to the Lebanese-Syrian border areas," he said, drawing cheers from legislators in the Parliament and the thousands of Syrians listening outside.
Although it was not immediately clear if Assad meant some troops would stay within Lebanon's border, Syrian cabinet minister Buthaina Shaaban told CNN the troops would be withdrawing to the Syrian side of the border, Reuters reported.
Cheat and retreat, or the real thing? The world must not move the spotlight from Lebanon until the Syrians have moved their soldiers out of the actual country.
Al-Jaz says that Walid Jumblatt called Assad's speech a positive development, but that he demanded a timetable. I couldn't tell whether there was an official American reaction to Assad's speech, but I'm sure that Bush will want a timetable, too.
UPDATE: America responds:
Keeping up the pressure on Syria, the United States on Saturday strongly criticized President Bashar Assad for announcing only a partial pullback of his troops from Lebanon.
``President Assad's announcement is not enough,'' the State Department said in a statement issued hours after the Syrian leader made the pledge in a speech to parliament.
``As President Bush said Friday, when the United States and France say withdraw, we mean complete withdrawal - no halfhearted measures,'' the statement said.
Assad said in Damascus that Syria gradually would pull troops back eastward to the Syrian border.
Bush has said that anything less than a complete withdrawal of 15,000 Syrian troops and intelligence services by May - when parliamentary elections in Lebanon are to be held - would be an unacceptable ``half-measure.'' France, Britain, Germany and Saudi Arabia have made the same demand.
Good.
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