BBC (Sunday): Syria pullback 'starts on Monday'

From the BBC Online
Dated Sunday March 6 15:25 GMT (7:25 am PST)

Syria pullback "starts on Monday"

The redeployment of Syrian troops in Lebanon will start on Monday, the Lebanese defence minister has said.

Abdel Rahim Mrad said forces will pull back to the eastern Bekaa Valley, beginning a two-stage withdrawal.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will meet his Lebanese counterpart on Monday to discuss the details.

The US said the redeployment did not go far enough, while Lebanon's Hezbollah movement has denounced what it called "foreign intervention" in Lebanon.

Read more.

I don't like the "automatic" response by the Administration, but is anyone actually surprised by it?

The comment by the Hezbollah movement is hilarious in its irony.

From the BBC Online
Dated Saturday March 5 23:00 GMT (3:00 pm PST)

Syria to redeploy Lebanon troops

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has announced the phased redeployment of Syrian forces in Lebanon.

Addressing Syria's parliament, Mr Assad said troops would withdraw to the eastern Bekaa Valley and then to the Syrian border.

The US said Mr Assad's pledge was "not enough" and called for a full pull-out . . . .

Lebanon's main opposition leader, Walid Jumblatt, called Mr Assad's announcement a "positive start" but demanded a clear timetable for the withdrawal.

So, a Syrian opposition leader is cautiously optimistic and Bush rattles his saber. It looks like Bush is just making noise.

I do believe its just saber rattling, but either way its not constructive to resolving this issue.

Constructive?

not directed so much at Syria as at Lahoud.

'Not enough' is just a rude paraphrase of 'positive start' + timetable.

Maybe we should invade them anyway. :silly:

From the BBC Online
Dated Sunday March 6

Syria sidesteps Lebanon demands
By Orla Guerin
BBC News, Damascus

Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gathered outside the parliament building in downtown Damascus to listen to the president's address on loudspeakers.

Some waved the Syrian flag, while others held his picture aloft.

But the support seemed orchestrated.

While the president may have satisfied the crowds he probably will not have satisfied the international community, and certainly not the Americans.

Read more.

It cant be Israelis or the Lebanese. And I doubt that Congress would let Bush attack Lebanon or Syria without a vote, no matter how flimsy it would be. Is Assad so damn weak that he could be cowed so easily?? Or just guilty of bad judgment? I suspect that he could stay put without any real retribution for the time being, if he had any balls.

Assad is weak. Arab nationalism, of which he is the lone remaining ruling proponent left, is on the wane in the ME.

Where we are
There's daggers in men's smiles.
-- Macbeth (2.2.141-42)

Much of the analysis I have read from the BBC about internal politics in Syria suggests that Bashar al-Assad is President of Syria not because he has any political skills or an independent power base but because he presents a facade of national unity to cover over a byzantine bureaucratic system that is fractured. The Syrian government is a collection of bureaucratic fiefdoms over which Bashar has little control. He less the President than the idiot prince.

That Bashar may be well-meaning but weak is not an argument that can be used against a neocon bent on regime change in Syria. The fact is that weakling like Bashar has no more credibility than a liar like Bush. Bush will give you his word and have every intention of doing something else. Bashar will give you his word, have every intention of keeping it, and still not be able to make it happen.

Consequently, even though he is moving his troops back toward the Syrian frontier and appears to be preparing for a withdrawal, it remains to be seen if his underlings will comply with his directives.

A weak leader is always expendable. If Syria's real power brokers decide they've had enough of this charade, Bashar will be fortunate to escape with a whole skin. Centuries ago, idiot princes might be discreetly poisoned. Nowadays, there are other options, but usually ending in removing the idiot from power.

BBC links:
Jon Leyne: Syria`s Lebanon conundrum (February 28, 2005)
Magdi Abdelhadi: Reformist despair in Assad`s Syria (July 6, 2004)

Maybe they are bad guys, maybe they should pull out, but doing it now makes it look like * has power. Not good timing, imho.

is a good time. Of course, a better time would have been 15 yrs ago.

EDITED for grammar

That, of course, is owing to the corporate media that is owned by the same people who own Bush. It will be an easy illusion for them to create.

The fact is that France and Britain have more influence over Syria than the US. The EU does more trade with Syria than the US. The Europeans have leverage over Syria that the US does not.

If you want to know what's going on, put down your newspaper and turn off your TV. I recommend getting news from Internet; a critical part of that program is to read the foreign press. It isn't a coincidence that I am posting most of my information from the BBC on this thread. The BBC has been for decades a source of news for people seeking information in lands deprived of a free and independent press. Our corporate mainstream media has become dysfunctional. It is bent not on providing citizens of a democratic country with what is needed to make an informed choice, but with telling them no more than they want them to know in order to control the choice they make. Going around this noise machine is as much the duty of a good citizen as voting.

Syria and Lebanon have decided to hold summit talks in Damascus Monday to finalize the mechanism of a two-stage troop withdrawal from Lebanon pledged by the Syrian president on Saturday. But the United States and France said the planned pullback was "insufficient." Syrian President Bashar al Assad

Following the summit on Monday, Syria will start pulling back its forces in Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley, Lebanese Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Mrad said on Sunday. "The withdrawal starts tomorrow," Mrad told Reuters, adding that forces would retreat from northern Lebanon and Mount Lebanon in accordance with the Taif Accord that ended Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

Announcement of the summit and the expected withdrawal came as Lebanese army commando units deployed in Beirut Sunday to prevent potential street clashes between Syrian loyalists and opposition activists.

Several Lebanese opposition leaders were suspicious about the full pullout, but Syria's Immigrants Minister Botheina Shaaban told CNN that the Syrians would withdraw into the Syrian side of the border.

Some press reports suggested that Assad planned to withdraw 12,000 troops out of Lebanon altogether before the Arab summit conference in Algiers March 23, leaving between 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers in the Bekaa Valley in the first stage.

al Bawaba

March 6, 2005 7:00 PM

Syria to start troop pullback Monday

By Nadim Ladki

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon says Syria will start pulling back its forces in the country on Monday,
as the United States warned it would not accept any half measures by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Under intense international pressure, Assad announced plans on Saturday for a complete withdrawal
of troops from Lebanon but said Damascus would play a role in its neighbour's affairs.

"The withdrawal starts tomorrow," Lebanese Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Mrad told Reuters, adding
that forces would pull back from northern Lebanon and Mount Lebanon in accordance with the Taif Accord
that ended Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

Mrad said on Sunday the pullback would start immediately after a meeting in Damascus between
leaders of both countries to approve Assad's plan for a swift two-phased withdrawal.

The United States has been wary of Assad's plans. The White House said on Sunday that, with its
allies, it would not stand by as Assad takes "half measures" in Lebanon, promising to step up pressure
for a complete and immediate withdrawal.

"The international community is not going to stand by and let Assad continue to have these kind of
half measures," White House counsellor Dan Bartlett said."

The U.S. administration has taken issue with Syria's lack of a timetable and vague reference to a
continuing role in Lebanon, despite the announced withdrawal.

"Something that he didn't mention is Syrian secret services and intelligence officials that really
keep the clamp of fear in the Lebanese people, to fully withdraw as well," Bartlett said.

U.S. President George W. Bush is considering new unilateral sanctions, including freezing Syrian
assets, U.S. officials say, and Washington was discussing "next steps" with European allies.

more

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5582068

time to make a new demand.

The WH wants the secret service as part of the pull out agreement or they're going to start freezing Syrian assets.

If Syria (Iraq) still has troops (WMD) in Lebanon (in possession), we must invade... it is up to Syria (Iraq) to prove that they do not, not for us to prove that they do.
It's impossible to prove a negative.

That Frat Boy just needs to look like he's doing something.