BBC (Monday): Syrian pullback 'by end of March'

[Jack Rabbit]

From the BBC Online
Dated Monday March 7 13:31 GMT (5:31 am PST)

Syrian pullback "by end of March"

to the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon by the end of March, the two countries' presidents have agreed at a summit.

The announcement comes after weeks of international pressure and protests in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Up to 5,000 Syrian troops will leave outposts overlooking Beirut, but the fate of the 14,000-strong Syrian garrison has been deferred.

France, Germany and the US have called for an immediate withdrawal of troops.

But a joint Syrian-Lebanese statement said the "size and length of stay of Syrian forces in Bekaa" would be agreed a month after the initial redeployment.

Read more.

[bemildred]

1. I notice Nasrallah has decided to speak up.

And Asia Times has this commentary:

Iran pulls Syria's strings over Lebanon

But as the assassination of Hariri unexpectedly united most of Lebanon's antagonist factions, mostly the Christians, Sunnis, Druze and Shi'ites, in an anti-Syrian national uprising, and international pressures increased, spearhead by Washington and Paris, urging President Bashar al-Assad to take out his 14,000-15,000 soldiers from the neighboring nation, Iran rushed to help Syria by activating the Lebanese Hezbollah, or the Party of God.

The Shi'ite-based organization was created by the Islamic Republic in 1982, in essence to fight anti-Iranian operations mounted by Iraq in the region, but also as a tool responding to one of the principles of the Islamic Republic: the annihilation of the Jewish state and ending the presence in the region of its Western supporters, mainly the US - objectives that also responded to Syrian goals.

Armed, financed and trained by both Iran and Syria, the Hezbollah enjoys enviable popularity both in Lebanon and throughout the Arab world because of its unabated fight against the Israelis, to the point that it is credited as the "single Arab movement that forced the mighty Tsahal to withdraw in June 2000 from the areas it had occupied in parts of southern Lebanon since 1982".

It was also Hezbollah that put an end to the presence of US Marine Corps and French forces in the country by killing more than 240 Americans in their barracks in Beirut in 1983 and 120 French soldiers in deadly suicidal attacks against their garrison.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GC08Ak02.html

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Isolating Hezbollah won't be a bad thing

Nasrallah and his friends are caught between a rock and a hard place over this. As they hold seats in Lebanon's parliament, they may want to be good, patriotic Lebanese and join the call for withdrawal of foreign troops. However, that may be biting the hand that feeds them.

[bemildred]

3. There are some new and interesting fault lines being exposed.

The UIA is apparently also having "issues" over Iranian influence.
It's hard to sort the bullshit out from the facts right now, there
is such a lot of bullshit and so few facts.

[Igel]

4. What Jumblatt said.

I especially liked reading earlier today that Nasrallah's called for no foreign-meddling in Lebanon ... but that Syria should stay.