EU pressures on Syria to implement UN resolution 1559

The European Union has called on Syria to implement the UN Security Council resolution no. 1559 which calls for the withdrawal of the Syrian forces from Lebanon.

The EU said in conclusion of its summit in Brussels yesterday that comprehensive peace should be extended also to Syria and Lebanon. In September, the UN Security Council issued a resolution in which it called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon, in remarks to Syria.

Both Damascus and Beirut rejected this request and considered it as an intervention in the internal affairs. Lebanese and international critics say that the presence of the Syrian forces makes of Syria the dominant force on the Lebanese policy, while the Lebanese government says that the existence of these forces guarantees the country's stability following the civil war took place in Lebanon in 1975. The number of Syrian troops in Lebanon is estimated at 14,000 soldiers.