France commends partial pullout of Syrian forces from Lebanon
Syria-Lebanon, Politics, 2/21/2003

The assistance for the spokesman of the French foreign ministry Bernard Valero on Wednesday praised the new partial pullout of the Syrian forces deployed in Lebanon and considered it a step in the right track.

Replying to a question on the redeployment, the spokesman said that this measure which was taken by the Syrian and Lebanese authorities falls in the course of al-Taif agreement which "France has been ever clinging to." Each of Syria and the Lebanese government considered this withdrawal as a step in the context of completing the implementation of Taif accord, which was finalized in 1989 for the Lebanese national reconciliation and putting an end to the civil war in Lebanon 1975- 1990.

A Lebanese military source said that the plan states that some 4,000 Syrian troops will leave Lebanon. He explained that the operation will start as from Wednesday especially in al-Batroun area to the north of Lebanon and will continue for five days.

On Wednesday and in a statement, the Lebanese army announced the pullout operation and did not specify if the pulled out forces will be redeployed in other areas in Lebanon or return back to Syria. However, similar earlier withdrawals of Syrian forces in Lebanon resulted in reducing the number of Syrian troops from 35,000 to 20,000.

Previous Stories:
  New redeployment of the Syrian forces in Lebanon   (2/19/2003)
  Al-Assad confers with al-Hariri, Ideh   (2/19/2003)
  Al-Assad reviewed with Lebanese figures issues of concern to Syria, Lebanon   (1/30/2003)

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