Syrian troops to leave Lebanon

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria will withdraw troops from mountain and coastal areas in Lebanon in line with a 1989 agreement, Lebanon's defense minister said Thursday amid international pressure following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.\nLebanese Defense Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad said the troops will be withdrawn to the eastern Bekaa Valley on the Syrian border, but he gave no timeframe.\nLebanese and Syrian military officers have begun meetings to define "the dates and the way" the withdrawal will take place, Murad said, adding that the pullback was in line with the Arab-brokered Taif agreement that ended Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.\n"The decision to withdraw has been taken," Murad said in television interviews. "What remains is the exact timing."\nIn the wake of Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination, the Bush administration has issued strong calls for Syria to withdraw completely from Lebanon, where Damascus has about 15,000 troops. The Americans have also said Syria should remove its intelligence agents, but there was no sign of such a move.\nA U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States has not been notified about a withdrawal and it remains to be seen how many troops would be removed from Lebanon and when the pullout would occur.\nIsrael, which withdrew its forces from Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year guerrilla war against the militant group Hezbollah, welcomed Syria's announcement. But an Israeli official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, added that Israel would have to study the Syrian declaration to determine if it promised a real change.\nMurad's comments came shortly after Syria announced it would withdraw troops from Lebanon in accordance with the Taif accord but indicated the pullout would not be immediate or total.\n"The important withdrawals which have already been carried out and what will be carried out later will be in agreement with Lebanon based on the Taif Accord," the Syrian Foreign Ministry statement said.\nThe Syrian statement, read to journalists by deputy Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem, did not give a timetable but noticeably referred to "withdrawals," and not just deployment, the term used for past troop movements.\nSyria also indicated the withdrawal will not be complete and sought to explain why it would not immediately take such a step.\n"Speeding up the pace of withdrawals requires enabling the Lebanese army and internal security forces to fill the vacuum that could take place in a way that does not undermine the security of Lebanon and Syria," the statement said.\nThere was no sign Thursday of any troop movement in Lebanon, where Syria is the main power broker.\nSyria once had more than 40,000 troops in Lebanon during the civil war and for years has pledged to implement the Taif agreement. It has redeployed troops several times since 2000 -- most recently in December, when it pulled plainclothes soldiers out of three security and intelligence centers in Beirut and north Lebanon. It still maintained other intelligence offices in the city, however.\nIt never implemented a withdrawal to the eastern Bekaa Valley, a predominantly Shiite area that borders on Syria, that was scheduled for the early 1990s. The accord also calls for an eventual total pullout.\nSyrian troops are deployed on some of the high ground of central Lebanon in Maronite Christian and Druse towns of the central mountains that separate the coast from the Bekaa Valley. Syrian troops were removed in earlier withdrawals from the coast near Palestinian refugee camps and south of Beirut.