Power vacuum alert from AP via Fox News,“Syrian Withdrawal From Lebanon Almost Done”
BEIRUT, Lebanon “” Syrian troops burned documents and dismantled military posts in their final hours in Lebanon Sunday, before deploying toward the border and effectively ending 29 years of military presence in the country.
A few score Syrian troops will remain in Lebanon for a farewell ceremony Tuesday that the Lebanese Army plans to hold in a town close to the Syrian border.
In Damascus, the Syrian capital, a government official said: “Within the next few hours, all the troops will be out of Lebanon.”
“What will be left are those who will take part in the official farewell” on Tuesday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity…
“Tomorrow everything will be over,” a Lebanese military officer said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity, as is typical for military officials here.
On Tuesday, Lebanese troops at a base in Rayak, few miles from the Syrian border, will conduct a ceremony to pay tribute to the Syrian Army’s role in Lebanon, a Lebanese military officer said.
Afterward, the token Syrian force will leave, and there will not be a single Syrian soldier left in Lebanon. The Syrians entered Lebanon in 1976, ostensibly as peacekeepers in the year-old civil war. After the war ended in 1990, 40,000 Syrian troops remained in Lebanon, giving Damascus the decisive say in Lebanese politics…
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week he was delaying until Tuesday the release of a report to the Security Council on Syria in Lebanon so he could confirm the full withdrawal.