This just came across the wire desk for the Washington Post.
"Syria plans to pull all its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon by April 30, and a U.N. team could be dispatched to verify the withdrawal," a U.N. envoy said Sunday after meeting President Bashar Assad.
The full withdrawal will mark the end of Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon and will comply with the demands in a U.N. resolution, helping to relieve the international pressure on Damascus.
U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa had informed him "all Syrian troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus will have been withdrawn fully and completely" by April 30, at the latest.
Roed-Larsen said the Syrian commitment implies all its security forces will be withdrawn in line with the 1989 Taif agreement, which paved the way for the end of the Lebanese civil war, and U.N. resolution 1559 that was passed by the Security Council in September. The resolution called for Syria to withdraw its troops and stop interference in Lebanon."
Keep checking PubliusPundit for the latest news and analysis. Syria has lowered its troops in Lebanon from 14,000 to 8,000 in the eastern portion of the country. This seems to be good news indeed. How long until real democracy emerges in Lebanon? Will this reduce the bombings in Christian areas of the country or intesify them?
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