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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Lebanon_______________
Syrian army quits Beirut
Partial pullout under public pressure
Syria’s military has pulled hundreds of troops out of Beirut following a long campaign by Lebanon’s Maronite Christians against the presence of Syria’s 35,000 soldiers in the country.
Dozens of tanks crossed Lebanon’s eastern border back into Syria in June, but neither country announced exactly how many soldiers would actually leave Lebanon. In the first official Syrian comment on the redeployment, parliament speaker Abdel-Qader Qaddourah called it a sign of harmony between Beirut and Damascus; he added a pointed comment that Syria had helped save Lebanon from itself during the latter country’s bloody civil war in the 1980s.
“When the Syrian army entered Lebanon, Lebanon remained on the map as a unified, independent republic,” Qaddourah told the Arabic Radio Monte Carlo. “Lebanon was fighting over identity and sectarianism. Fraternity between the Lebanese and Syrians restored it as a free country.” The most vocal critic of Syria’s domination of Lebanon, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, said that Syria’s political weight in Lebanon should decrease along with its military influence. (For a more detailed story on the Maronite Patriarch’s campaign to restore Lebanese independence -- go to lebanon.html)
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