Syria will withdraw all its remaining 8,000 troops from Lebanon by next week, reports the Lebanese daily A-Nahar.
The newspaper did not name its sources. According to the report, this decision was taken last Saturday during a meeting of the Syrian-Lebanese Military Committee. The Syrian side, says A-Nahar, told its counterpart that the Syrian leadership decided to complete the withdrawal by next week.
It has been reported by Lebanese security officials until now that some 6,000 out of 14,000 Syrian troops have withdrawn from Lebanon.
If all Syrian troops do indeed complete the withdrawal by next week, it will mean a major success for the American political pressure on Syria. The Americans demanded that Syria obey U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, which called on all Syrian troops to immediately leave Lebanon.