Syrians Quit North Lebanon, Crisis Threatens Polls Reuters, BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 11, 2005 The last Syrian troops in north Lebanon left for home on Friday, underlining Syria's diminishing role in its neighbor as a worsening political crisis threatened the timing of parliamentary polls due by May. Thousands of soldiers and hundreds of vehicles streamed across the Syrian border after an overnight pullout. By noon the Syrians had vacated all army posts in the north, witnesses said. Some intelligence offices were evacuated, although one was still manned in the city of Tripoli, a security source said. Syrian forces first entered Lebanon in 1976 early in the civil war. Their numbers have declined to 14,000 from a peak of 40,000, but they had never before abandoned the north. Syrian troops also continued to return home or move eastwards from the Beirut area in line with a phased withdrawal plan agreed this week amid intense global pressure on Damascus to lift its military and political grip on Lebanon. It was not clear how many Syrian soldiers have gone home since the redeployment began on Tuesday. U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, due to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Saturday, said he expected Syria to provide a firm timetable for a total troop withdrawal from Lebanon as demanded by a Security Council resolution. "I'm looking forward for a good dialogue and of course I expect that we will get commitments and timetables for a full implementation of (resolution) 1559," he told reporters in Amman after meeting Jordan's Foreign Minister Hani Mulki. Larsen is expected to meet Lebanese officials on Sunday. In Beirut, the opposition indicated it would spurn a call by reinstated pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami for a national unity government, setting the stage for a political standoff that could force the general election to be postponed. Lebanon's pro-Syrian cabinet fell last week after an outcry over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, but Karami was reappointed on Thursday in a move opposition leaders said would only prolong political uncertainty. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, visiting Moscow, said Karami's reinstatement was "a disappointment and an extension to the crisis," while a group of Christian MPs said it "shows Syria's insistence on maintaining its tutelage policy."POLITICAL DEADLOCK FEARED A pro-Syrian political source warned of a power vacuum that could force the authorities to postpone the election. "The initial reactions of the opposition indicate a refusal to join the government and thus we're heading to a government crisis... which would indirectly scrap the elections," said the source, who asked not to be identified. A government must be formed soon to allow parliament to issue a law organizing the elections at least a month before they begin. Otherwise the polls would have to be rescheduled. Opposition leaders have said they want a cabinet excluding election candidates. They are also demanding a full Syrian pullout, the sacking of pro-Syrian security chiefs and an international inquiry into last month's assassination of Hariri. Karami will start consulting political and religious leaders, including some in the opposition, on Monday, political sources said. Pro-Syrian ministers dominated his last cabinet. The United States, which has been demanding that Syria end its involvement in Lebanon, criticized Karami's reappointment. Lebanon's defense minister has said the first phase of the withdrawal plan, which calls for a Syrian pullback to the eastern Bekaa Valley will be completed next week. Beirut and Damascus will then decide how long any Syrian troops remain. The U.N. resolution demands a full Syrian withdrawal, the disarming of militias and free elections. The Shi'ite Muslim Hizbollah movement is the only Lebanese militia openly to retain its guns since the 1975-90 civil war. In a distinct shift of emphasis, U.S. officials now say the Bush administration would accept a political role for Hizbollah, which it classifies as a terrorist group, if it disarmed. But Hizbollah says it sees no change in the U.S. position. "The U.S. stand is traditional and historic. It always speaks of accepting a political role for the party in return for disarming the resistance," Hizbollah's second-in-command Sheikh Naim Qassem told Reuters on Friday. This week Hizbollah showed its political clout by drawing hundreds of thousands of people to Beirut for a pro-Syria rally far bigger than those organized by foes of Damascus's role. (Additional reporting by Leila Bassam) By Nadim Ladki
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