Syria expected to announce army pull-back

Syrian President Bashar Assad was expected to announce today the pull-back of his troops in Lebanon closer to the Syrian border, but US counterpart George W Bush has rejected anything but a full withdrawal as insufficient.

Assad’s announcement, expected to be made during a speech to his parliament, is seen as a bid to ease incessant Arab and US-led international pressure regarding the presence of 15,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon and the risk of isolation.

His unscheduled speech comes after a rough week, beginning with the resignation of his allied government in Lebanon and ending with the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah telling him face-to-face to get all his forces out of Lebanon quickly.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem believes Assad will announce a pull-back of his country’s troops in his speech.

Mouallem, during a visit to Moscow, told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Syrian and Lebanese leaders have agreed on an action plan for carrying out the 1989-Arab brokered Taif Accord. But he would not say when. ”You will hear details of this plan soon,” he said.

The Taif agreement calls for Syria to move its troops in Lebanon to the border, then for both countries to negotiate their withdrawal.

Lebanese Defence Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad – a member of the pro-Syria government, which remains in place as a caretaker – said Assad was expected to announce “a redeployment to the Bekaa region” in eastern Lebanon.

Past redeployments, particularly since 2000, have seen some Syrian troops return, but Murad said Assad wants to keep some troops here long-term and conduct a complete removal after negotiating with Lebanon’s governments in line with the Taif Accord.

Bush dismissed redeployment alone as a “half-measure,” while Arab leaders would likely be unsatisfied by such a move.

Bush wants Syria’s troops and its intelligence agents out of Lebanon by May, when Lebanese parliament elections are to be held. “This is nonnegotiable. It is time to get out,” told the New York Post.

Bush said there was no threat of military action, but Arab nations worry Washington or the United Nations may take tough measures to push Syria into leaving Lebanon, which Damascus has dominated for more than a decade.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt are leading Arab efforts to get Syria to go beyond a redeployment and quickly remove all troops.

Syria also faces pressure from Lebanon’s opposition, which forced the resignation of the pro-Damascus government this week with a giant protest by 25,000 people, fuelled by anger over the February 14 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Many Lebanese blame Syria and the Lebanese government in the killing. Both deny involvement.

Lebanon’s ’Syria Out’ campaign has been largely peaceful, but a concussion bomb was tossed on Friday from a moving car at a Syrian military post in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, exploding but causing no casualties, security officials said.

Syrian troops are currently based in central Lebanese mountains overlooking Beirut and in northwestern regions.

Syria has told Arab nations in behind-the-scenes diplomacy it wants to keep 3,000 troops and early-warning stations in Lebanon, but Egypt and Saudi Arabia are pressing Damascus on a timetable to remove all troops by April.

Arab League-backed Syrian troops first entered Lebanon in 1976 as peacekeepers in its 1975-1990 civil war. When the war ended, the troops remained and have been the keystone of Syrian domination of Lebanon’s politics.