Syria is ready to begin a large scale withdrawal of the 15,000 troops it has stationed in Lebanon before May's parliamentary elections. Diplomatic sources in Paris said UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told French President Jacques Chirac that Syria is about to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and that a first withdrawal to Dahr al-Baidar, Mdayrej, and Ain-Dara (Lebanese border villages) will be completed before the elections. But the source added that Syria's complete withdrawal from Lebanon, as called for by Chirac following his meeting with Larsen at the weekend, will not occur unless "all UN resolutions concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are implemented."
 This flies in the face of both French and UN insistence that Syria abide by 1559 without any linkage to other UN resolutions. France, which sponsored 1559, will also observe Lebanon's parliamentary elections, scheduled for mid-April or early May. On Sunday London-based Al Hayat newspaper cited diplomatic sources in Paris saying the message carried by UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen to Damascus last week contained a strong warning to Syrian president Bashar Assad not to interfere in Lebanon's upcoming elections.
The UN warned Assad that any attempts to harm opposition members, naming former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri or Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt, would lead to a "total, final and irrevocable divorce with the international community."
| Obviously, this was written before Hariri was boomed. Now it's time to put up. |
Larsen, who was named to his post in January to report on the implementation of the UN resolution ahead of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's report, said that all parties concerned with 1559 need to express good will in implementing it. Diplomatic sources said that Larsen asked Chirac to grant him additional time to implement the resolution because of the difficulty of disarming Hizbullah, which is supported by the Lebanese government. The sources said that the disarmament of Hizbullah is likely to occur through negotiations with the concerned parties and not threats through issuing a second UN resolution and the use military force. |