29-year military presence, but commentators warned it will not speed up a regional peace settlement with neighboring Israel. Speaking at a ceremony at the Riyyak airbase in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Syria’s chief of staff, General Ali Habib said that "Syria completes its withdrawal of its security and armed forces to inside the borders of Syria," following international pressure and demonstrations by Lebanon’s Christians, Druze, students and political movements.
Syria sent soldiers into Lebanon as part of an Arab peacekeeping force in 1976 after civil war broke out between Muslim and Christian forces. The size of the Syrian contingent reached 30,000 soldiers and was estimated by several news organizations as 300 before Tuesday’s final phase of the withdrawal, Bloomberg news agency reported.
ANTI SYRIAN PROTESTS
Analysts say the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a critic of Syrian interference in Lebanese politics, energized anti-Syrian protests, which led to the resignation of the pro-Syrian government headed by Omar Karame.
The withdrawal of Syrian forces was closely watched in Israel where media warned of to much
optimism. "Lebanon is still committed to a common policy with Syria when it comes to the regional peace process," said Zvi Bar’el in Israel’s Haaretz news paper.
"Lebanese opposition leaders have also declared that they have no intention of dismantling either the political or the economic cooperation between the countries," Bar’el added, warning that "they certainly have no plans to be seen to be in a hurry to sign a peace deal with Israel."
NEW HOPE
The removal of troops has however added to hope among members of the primarily Christian Southern Lebanese Army (SLA) that they may be able to return home, BosNewsLife monitored. Many of them fled to Israel in 2000, when the SLA supporting Israeli army withdrew from southern Lebanon, despite the presence of Syrian forces in the country.
Syria and other Arab countries backed Lebanese Muslim factions, including Hezbollah, while Christians, including those of the SLA, received Israeli support during years of civil war which began in 1975.
"As soon as the Syrians leave, and I don’t think it will be more than two months, I will be going back," Joseph Hanoun, a bodyguard of late senior SLA commander Akel Hashem, told The Jerusalem Post newspaper recently. "I will go back regardless of [militant group] Hezbollah because without Syria and its security apparatus in Lebanon Hezbollah is weak," the paper quoted the 38-year old Hanoun as saying.
CONCERN REMAINS
Yet, Lebanese Christians remain concerned that the Syrian withdrawal will play in the hands of
extremists trying to undermine the fragile democracy of the troubled nation. Christians expressed worries earlier this month about a recent wave of bombings directed against them which killed at least three people and injured 24.
However the United States, France, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who supported the withdrawal, have suggested that without a Syrian presence Lebanon may have more chances to flourish as a stable state. In March, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged to remove his soldiers and intelligence agents from Lebanon before its May 29 elections.
Sunni Muslim Najib Miqati, a wealthy businessman and friend of al-Assad, was reportedly chosen to replace Karame on April 15 after promising to meet opposition demands that the elections be held on time, and to not run for office himself.
The United Nations has been calling since last year for a complete Syrian departure from Lebanon, in compliance with Security Council Resolution 1559. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has dispatched a team to verify whether the Syrian withdrawal has been completed. He was to deliver his report on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, Bloomberg reported. (With: Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Egypt).
Why is it that Muslims claim Moses was a prophet and the 10 Commandments given to Moses by OUR HEAVENLY FATHER on Mount Sinai clearly gives OUR HEAVENLY FATHER’s Commandment not to kill while they believe in killing those who will not convert, and killing for other various reasons under Shari’a Law? Do Not Kill; there are no ifs, ands, or buts. OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, who created all in Heaven and on Earth, made that Commandment expressly clear. Any prophets to come along later have supported all those Commandments given by OUR HEAVENLY FATHER. OUR HEAVENLY FATHER is greater than absolutely everyone and absolutely everything. Do Not Kill; there are no ifs, ands, or buts. We apparently are not to kill others; that is not our purpose. Supposedly Mohammed said something different. So either Mohammed agreed with those Commandments and didn‘t actually say what he supposedly said, or Mohammed wasn’t a prophet. And if Mohammed agreed that those Commandments came from OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, then Mohammed didn’t try to argue with them or change them to fit his own agenda. Maybe that ‘Book Burning’ in the 7th century A.D. (C.E.) wasn’t just to ‘standardize’ but to ‘cover-up’ the Truth. I’m not trying to argue religion here; or trying to argue doctrine. It just does not make any sense. If Christians and Jews killed people as Muslims kill people, then most of the world would kill each other off. Do Not Kill; there are no ifs, ands, or buts. May OUR HEAVENLY FATHER’s Will Be Done.