Barak resumes pressures on al-Assad

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is focusing pressure on Syrian President Hafez al-Assad through implementing a unilateral withdrawal from south Lebanon to change al-Assad's stance concerning withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan.

Barak convened with the leader of the pro-Israel South Lebanon Army militia, Antoine Lahd, and phoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, currently in Washington, and King Abdullah II of Jordan to inform them of Israel's intention to withdraw even before July according to United Nations Security Council resolution 425.