UN confirms Syrian troop pullout

A UN team has verified the pullout of all Syrian troops from Lebanon, Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced.

Syria completed its withdrawal on 26 April

“We have verified all the withdrawal, including the border area,” he told reporters on Monday.

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in September calling on Syria to withdraw all its troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanon.

But it was the international pressure after the 14 February assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, that spurred the Syrians to leave.

Syria’s last soldier in Lebanon walked across the border on 26 April, ending a 29-year military presence that was the key to Damascus’s control of Lebanon.

The United Nations dispatched a team led by Senegalese Brigadier General Mouhamadou Kandji, the deputy military adviser for the UN peacekeeping department, to verify the withdrawal.

Source: News Agencies