Syrian Tanks Roll Out of Lebanon; New Govt Monday
Reuters
Date: 04-09-05
By Nadim Ladki
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Dozens of Syrian tanks and military vehicles left Lebanon on Saturday as Syria quickened the pace of a complete military and intelligence pullout promised by the end of this month from its neighbor.
Pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami said he would unveil a long-awaited new government in Beirut on Monday to lead the country into general elections originally set for May.
Witnesses said at least 75 tanks had vacated positions in the southern end of the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and were being driven on military transporters across the border.
More troops and military vehicles of the Syrian army's 10th division were preparing to leave posts in the same area near the villages of Azeh and Loucy, they said.
Syria, under U.S.-led pressure and facing popular protests after the Feb. 14 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, has pledged to withdraw by April 30.
Lebanon's opposition has blamed Syria for Hariri's death. Damascus denies the charge.
Syrian forces first moved into Lebanon in 1976, near the start of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, and became the dominant force in Lebanese politics.
Syrian forces, now in the final phase of withdrawal, had abandoned many positions in central Bekaa and a strategic mountainous area east of Beirut this week.
NEW GOVERNMENT
Lebanon has been without a government since anti-Syrian popular protests forced Karami to resign along with his government on Feb. 28.
But the veteran Sunni Muslim politician was reappointed by parliament a few days later. His efforts to form a unity government failed when the opposition refused to join any cabinet alongside loyalists.
The delay in forming the government was seen by the opposition as an attempt by to postpone the elections, due before the term of the mainly pro-Syrian parliament expired by May 31.
"God willing we will announce the government on Monday as we promised," Karami told reporters on the flight back from Rome where he and other top officials attended Pope John Paul's funeral at the Vatican.
He said the new government's first task was to draw up a draft law organizing elections which should see Lebanon divided into at least five large constituencies. Work on the draft is expected to take weeks, forcing a delay in the polls, political sources say.
They say the opposition wants elections as soon as possible to capitalize on public sympathy shown to its cause after Hariri's death. Loyalists want a delay in the hope that public fury will die down and divisions will appear among the ranks of a disparate opposition.
Karami's new government is set to be made up of mainly pro-Syrian politicians and about half of its members are from the previous cabinet, the political sources said.
Syria began withdrawing its 14,000 troops and dismantling intelligence posts on March 8, in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that foreign forces leave.
Source
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