March 07, 2005

Opposition protesters carry anti-Syrian banners during a demonstartion against Syria in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday March 7, 2005. About 100,000 anti-Syrian demonstrators converged on Martyrs' Square, repeatedly chanting 'Syria out!' and most waving Lebanon's distinctive red and white flag with a green cedar tree. Monday's demonstration marked three weeks since the Feb. 14 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri that began a peaceful campaign against Syrian control.
Opposition holds mass rally in Beirut as Syria prepares for army pullback

Up to 150,000 opposition supporters rallied in Beirut three weeks after the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri as Syria prepared for a troop pullback in Lebanon in the face of international pressure.

No kidding!
Today, President Bush told Assad to pull out all Syrian forces "now" and his call for complete Syrian withdrawal was joined by France's ChIraq and Germany's Schroeder just a couple of hours ago.
So did King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to Assad's face.
And so did Russia. (Even if Russia chimed in only so Putin can look pro-democratic for Bush's sake!)
The jig's up, Bashar!
Unless the Chinese want to back you...
When not only the U.S., but France, Germany, Russia, the Sauds and your former pals in the Arab League tell you to get your troops and "intelligence" people out of Lebanon and your only allies are Iran and Hezbollah, it's time to get out of Lebanon.

Lebanese red-and-white flags and chants of "Syria Out" filled the central Martyrs' Square as President Emile Lahoud held much anticipated Damascus talks on the promised redeployment to the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The pullback to the Bekaa will take place by the end of March, according to a joint statement issued after the summit between Lahoud and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.
[Bashar's doing what the Iranian mullahs are telling him to now.--Jen]
[...]
According to police, more than 150,000 people attended Monday's rally in Martyrs' Square, where Hariri is buried, to demand the truth about the Damascus critic's death.

Organisers of the rally gave a figure of between 200,000 and 250,000.
[I'm going with the organisers guesstimate; the crowds are massive.--J.T.]
[...]
"Truth, freedom, national unity," chanted the crowd.
[...]
Demonstrations were also held in the streets of Sidon, Hariri's hometown in southern Lebanon, gathering some 4,000 students.

The new protests came as the president held talks with Assad on the planned troop redeployment, which falls short of the full pullout demanded by the UN Security Council last September.
[Assad's putting his toes in the water to check the temperature.
If he can get away with this small, slow and incomplete pullout, he'd like that a lot, but I don't think either President Bush and the other world leaders or the Lebanese people are going to let him slide.]

Lebanese Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad said Sunday that the Syrian army would pull back to Bekaa Valley in a move expected to involve 4,000 to 5,000 troops, with the rest already in place.

On Saturday, Assad vowed to pull back the 14,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon "to the Bekaa Valley and then to the border."

But he did not make clear whether the troops would cross over into Syria once they had reached the border, prompting calls from Washington and Paris for an unambiguous pledge for an immediate and full withdrawal.

Damascus first sent in its troops in a year after the start of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and has remained the dominant political and military force in the country ever since.

As the pressure grew on Damascus, its allies announced that they too planned to take to the streets on Tuesday, fanning fears of violence.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Syrian-backed Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, said a full withdrawal of Syria's troops was unacceptable while Lebanon remained in a "state of war" with Israel.

Isn't this Cedar Revolution exciting?
Stay clicked, as Lucianne Goldberg likes to say!
(Maybe I misunderstood, but isn't the Bekaa Valley the place where Syrians have been firing on the Israelis for years?
And there's a good chance that this is where they wheeled Saddam's WMDs to.)