Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: La Siria ritira 1/3 delle truppe

                     *Associated Press/AP Online
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria has withdrawn nearly a third of its
troops from Lebanon, a senior officer said Sunday, but the Lebanese
foreign minister said a date for a complete withdrawal would not be
set until an April 7 meeting of the military leadership of the two
countries.
The senior Syrian officer said about 4,000 soldiers had
crossed the border into Syria since the pullout began on Tuesday and
the remaining 10,000 were in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley.
"Another 4,000 soldiers in Lebanon's central mountains
have redeployed to the Bekaa region. This is in addition to 6,000
troops already stationed in the Bekaa," the military official
said on condition of anonymity.
He said the fate of the 10,000 troops remaining in the Bekaa
would be discussed by the April 7 military commission.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud also said the
joint military commission would set the "duration, time and
location in these matters." He made the remarks after meeting
with U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen in Beirut, a day after Roed-Larsen
had visited Syrian President Bashar Assad.
President Bush, who repeatedly has called for a full Syrian
withdrawal from Lebanon, wants Syria to move out before Lebanon's
parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in April and May.
Asked if the final withdrawal could take place before the
elections, Hammoud said it was up to the joint military commission
to decide.
Roed-Larsen indicated he had extracted a timetable for full
withdrawal from Assad during their meeting Saturday but would not
reveal it until he meets with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in
New York this week.
Assad, facing international pressure to withdraw, told his
parliament on March 5 that Syria's 14,000 troops would be redeployed
to Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, closer to the border, by March
31, but a complete withdrawal would be deferred until after later
negotiations.
"The commission will present proposals to the Lebanese
and Syrian governments about the status of Syrian forces redeployed
in the Bekaa and define these forces' relationship with local
authorities," the Syrian official told The Associated Press.
Syria also has about 1,000 intelligence agents in Lebanon,
according to a Lebanese military official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, but it wasn't clear if their fate would be part of the
discussions.
Nine Syrian intelligence offices remain in northern Lebanon,
including the towns of Tripoli, Akkar, Minye and Amyoun.
Plainclothes intelligence agents operate from the guarded offices in
apartment buildings and deal directly with Lebanese.
Syria has been the main power broker in Lebanon for nearly
three decades since sending troops to its smaller neighbor in 1976
to help quell a year-old civil war. The troops, at times numbering
more than 35,000, remained after the war ended in 1990.
The 1989 Arab-brokered Taif Accord, which was never
implemented, called for Syria to move its troops to the Lebanese
border and for both countries to then negotiate the withdrawal.
Pressure on Syria to remove its troops gathered strength
when Lebanese presidential elections were upended by Parliament's
renewal of Lebanon's pro-Syria President Emile Lahoud's six-year
term in September. The move was believed taken under Syrian pressure
to change the constitution, which banned the incumbent from a new
term.
At that point, the United Nations passed Resolution 1559,
drafted by the United States and France. It declared Syria must
withdraw, stop influencing politics in the country and allow Lebanon
to hold presidential elections as scheduled.
On Sunday, Roed-Larsen said his mission in both Lebanon and
Syria was to ensure implementation of the U.N. resolution, which he
said would be "in the best interest of all parties concerned
and will take into consideration the necessity of political
stability in Lebanon."
Roed-Larsen later met with Lahoud, who told the U.N. envoy
that the Lebanese and Syrian leaderships have agreed on series of
military measures to secure a Syrian troop withdrawal in line with
the Taif agreement.
"The first stage of Syrian troop withdrawal to the
Bekaa region will be finalized soon," Lahoud said in a
statement. "A date will be set for a full and final Syrian
troop withdrawal from Lebanon by both countries' governments and
military leaderships."
On Saturday, Lahoud said Lebanon will not accept the
resolution's demand that the Islamic militant Hezbollah group be
disarmed. Washington labels the Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah
a terrorist organization, but Lebanon considers it a legitimate
resistance movement that led the guerrilla war against Israel's
18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
The U.N. Security Council is to receive a report next month
from Annan, based on Roed-Larsen's visit, on Syria's implementation
of the resolution. It then will consider next steps, which could
include sanctions on Syria.
Lebanon's opposition had long rejected Syria's role in their
country, but the outcry intensified after the Feb. 14 assassination
of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, seen as a powerful force
moving into the opposition camp. Tens of thousands of Lebanese have
protested in the streets.


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