This was entirely expected.
Syria has not withdrawn its troops from Lebanon, as required by a resolution of the U.N. Security Council adopted earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday.Syria has shifted about 3,000 soldiers formerly deployed south of Beirut, but it was unclear whether they have actually left Lebanon. In any case, Syria said about 14,000 of its troops remained in Lebanon, Annan said in a report to the 15-nation Security Council.
Other voices are being heard from within occupied Lebanon.
Backed by the fresh international pressure on Damascus, and angered over the vote in parliament, anti-Syrian voices are growing louder in Lebanon.But Rami Khouri, editor of Beiruit's "Daily Star" newspaper, said divisions still run deep: "[There have been two types of] reaction here to the international, let's say, tension or intervention through the Security Council resolution. One group of people says this is unwarranted interference and it shouldn't happen, that the UN shouldn't get involved in an internal issue. And then you have other people who are very pleased and they're delighted that the world is putting pressure on the Syrians to change their policy in Lebanon. And there's two very different and very opposed perceptions of this."
But Farid Khazan said he believes the trend in Lebanon favors a Syrian pullout, a solution that is favored by Lebanese Christians. Khazan, a political scientist with Beirut's American University, said his country's economic and political situation is so bad that all its various factions now agree on the need for change.
Keep watching. Syria is a linchpin.
Posted by Alan at October 1, 2004 12:23 PM