UN verifies Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon
AFP
Date: 05-23-05
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that the world body has verified that Syria has "fully" withdrawn its troops from neighboring Lebanon.
Annan told reporters that the UN mission to the region had issued a report verifying the complete withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon and that he had passed that finding on to the UN Security Council.
"Today it's the Syrian troops which have been withdrawn and so, in principle, Lebanon should be free of all foreign forces," Annan said.
"I have given the report of the verification mission to the president of the SC (Security Council), the verification mission that went into Lebanon to verify that the Syrian troops and security forces have fully withdrawn," Annan said.
Syria withdrew its forces in the wake of UN Resolution 1559, steered through the council in September by France and the United States, which demanded a full withdrawal of Damascus' forces from Lebanon.
Damascus said it completed the withdrawal on April 26, but Annan had been waiting for the UN team to verify the pullout.
Syria's decision came after the February 14 shock murder of popular former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, blamed by many on the then Lebanese regime and its political masters in Damascus.
Hariri's assassination, which sparked widespread protests that brought down the government in Lebanon in late February, also prompted the United Nations to launch an international commission to probe the killing.
Syria first deployed troops in Lebanon as a buffer force during the early stages of the 1975-1990 civil war, turning into the dominant factor on the Lebanese political and military scenes.
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