Pressure on Syria to leave Lebanon

The Washington Post daily said on Friday quoting American officials and others from the UN that the UN special envoy Terry Rod Larsen will warn President Bashar al-Assad when he will meet with him in Damascus of a political and economic isolation in case the Syrian forces will not be pulled out promptly and completely from Lebanon.

Rod Larsen, who was appointed by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan to ask al-Assad for a certain schedule for the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, had met with the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and will visit Lebanon before departing to Damascus.

One official at the UN said that Rod Larsen got a great support to be very tough with Syria if it will not respond to UN Security Council resolution no. 1559 providing for ending what it described the Syrian military presence in Lebanon.

Al-Assad obliged himself to withdraw his forces and undefined number of the intelligence from Lebanon to the Bekaa by the end of March, but no date was fixed for complete withdrawal which was left for a Syrian- Lebanese military committee.

The Syrian ambassador to the USA said on Tuesday that the Syrian forces will withdraw from Lebanon by the fall of May, the date for the legislative elections.