Syria plans to pull all of its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon by April 30, and a United Nations verification team will be dispatched - if the Lebanese government agrees - to verify the withdrawal, a U.N. envoy said Sunday after meeting with President Bashar Assad.
The full withdrawal will mark the end of 29 years of Syrian military presence in Lebanon. It will help relieve the international pressure on Syria's leaders because it will have complied with a U.N. resolution to remove its military from Lebanon.
As U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen met with Syria's leaders, a convoy of Syrian troops, tanks and equipment drove slowly through a rare April snowstorm in the Lebanese mountains, heading east to home.
In his statement, Roed-Larsen said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa had informed him that "all Syrian troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus will have been withdrawn fully and completely" by April 30 at the latest.
Roed-Larsen said the Syrian commitment implies that all of its security forces will be withdrawn in line with the 1989 Taif agreement, which paved the way for the end of the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, and September's U.N. Security Council resolution 1559. The resolution demanded that Syria end its influence in Lebanese politics.
"I agree with what Mr. Larsen said in his statement," Sharaa said at a joint news conference with the envoy. "By its full withdrawal from Lebanon, Syria would have implemented the part pertaining to it in the resolution 1559."
Sharaa said the latest development "will help improve the climate ... in the Middle East."
In Lebanon, a member of the opposition, Wael Abu-Faour, praised the announcement as "very positive, and we consider that it will lead to a new relationship and a new alliance with Syria."
But another opposition member, Gibran Tueni, accused Syria of continuing to meddle in Lebanese politics, particularly the current impasse over forming a government to hold the coming elections.
"Syria until this date is the one which decides. ... People in authority (in Lebanon) are fully under the control of the Syrian authorities," said Tueni, editor in chief of the leading Lebanese newspaper, An-Nahar. The two spoke on the satellite news channel Al Arabiya.
Syria's planned pullout is in line with a U.S. demand for a full Syrian withdrawal before parliamentary elections, which should be held before the May 31 expiration of the Lebanese legislature's mandate.
Sharaa said Syria "supports the elections and their taking place on the date that all the Lebanese have agreed on."
Roed-Larsen said that with Lebanese government approval, the U.N. would send a verification team to monitor Syria's full withdrawal, but he could not say when.
Syrian troops entered Lebanon, ostensibly as peacekeepers, in the second year of the 1975-1990 civil war. They remained afterward, making Syria the undisputed power in that country. The pro-Syrian Beirut government and Lebanese supporters of Syria have long argued that the country needs Syrian soldiers to maintain stability.
International pressure has increased on Syria to leave Lebanon since the Feb. 14 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Both the Syrian and Lebanese governments have vehemently denied any involvement in the assassination.
As U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen met with Syria's leaders, a convoy of Syrian troops, tanks and equipment drove slowly through a rare April snowstorm in the Lebanese mountains, heading east to home.
In his statement, Roed-Larsen said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa had informed him that "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 that all of its security forces will be withdrawn in line with the 1989 Taif agreement, which paved the way for the end of the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, and September's U.N. Security Council resolution 1559. The resolution demanded that Syria end its influence in Lebanese politics.
"I agree with what Mr. Larsen said in his statement," Sharaa said at a joint news conference with the envoy. "By its full withdrawal from Lebanon, Syria would have implemented the part pertaining to it in the resolution 1559."
Sharaa said the latest development "will help improve the climate ... in the Middle East."
In Lebanon, a member of the opposition, Wael Abu-Faour, praised the announcement as "very positive, and we consider that it will lead to a new relationship and a new alliance with Syria."
But another opposition member, Gibran Tueni, accused Syria of continuing to meddle in Lebanese politics, particularly the current impasse over forming a government to hold the coming elections.
"Syria until this date is the one which decides. ... People in authority (in Lebanon) are fully under the control of the Syrian authorities," said Tueni, editor in chief of the leading Lebanese newspaper, An-Nahar. The two spoke on the satellite news channel Al Arabiya.
Syria's planned pullout is in line with a U.S. demand for a full Syrian withdrawal before parliamentary elections, which should be held before the May 31 expiration of the Lebanese legislature's mandate.
Sharaa said Syria "supports the elections and their taking place on the date that all the Lebanese have agreed on."
Roed-Larsen said that with Lebanese government approval, the U.N. would send a verification team to monitor Syria's full withdrawal, but he could not say when.
Syrian troops entered Lebanon, ostensibly as peacekeepers, in the second year of the 1975-1990 civil war. They remained afterward, making Syria the undisputed power in that country. The pro-Syrian Beirut government and Lebanese supporters of Syria have long argued that the country needs Syrian soldiers to maintain stability.
International pressure has increased on Syria to leave Lebanon since the Feb. 14 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Both the Syrian and Lebanese governments have vehemently denied any involvement in the assassination.
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