Syria declines timetable on Lebanon pullout, UN says

[Gloria]

http://www.afp.com/english/newsml/stories/041001182451.nvx8un6d.html

Syria declines timetable on Lebanon pullout, UN says (01/10/2004)

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) Syria has not complied with a UN Security Council demand to pull its troops out of Lebanon and said it cannot give a timetable for doing so, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reported.

After studying progress on a council resolution last month calling for all foreign troops to get out of the country, Annan said Lebanon and Syria had both indicated that the soldiers were there at Beirut's request.

"The government of Syria has informed me that it cannot provide me with numbers and timetables for any future withdrawal," Annan said in the report released to the press.

"The requirements on the various parties set out in resolution 1559 have not been met," he said.

SNIP

The report was issued just hours after an apparent assassination attempt in Beirut on Lebanon's outgoing Economy and Trade Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the Syrian presence.

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