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By wire servicesThe international community welcomes the pullout, but some worry about a continued intelligence presence.
Syria's last soldier in Lebanon walked across the border Tuesday, welcomed home with cheers and flowers after a modest farewell from the Lebanese.
But Syria has not withdrawn a significant part of its intelligence presence in Lebanon, undermining its claim Tuesday to have ended its 29-year intervention in its western neighbor, U.S., European and U.N. officials said.
The military withdrawal would have been unthinkable only a few months ago. But amid series of strategic blunders by Syrian President Bashar Assad, Damascus came under relentless international pressure that intensified after the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The United States in particular is keeping up demands for an end to Syria's influence.
After weeks of Syrians vacating their posts - and Lebanese elated to see them go - Lebanon's pro-Syrian leadership was eager to give a dignified finish to the pullout. Top military brass from both sides exchanged medals at an hourlong ceremony at an air base near the border, and they emphasized the nations' close ties will continue.
The military withdrawal delighted opposition leader Walid Jumblatt. "The Syrian tutelage is over," Jumblatt said. "If they had implemented Taif before we wouldn't have seen this insulting, humiliating scene for the Arab Syrian army," he told LBC television, referring to a 1989 deal that called for Syria's gradual withdrawal but was never implemented.
The international community Tuesday welcomed the pullout of the last of the 14,000 Syrian troops. But the continuing presence of covert Syrian intelligence operatives would violate the promise Assad made to the United Nations last month to withdraw all Syrian personnel. It also would contradict a letter the Syrian government wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday saying the withdrawal was complete.
U.N. member states and the Lebanese opposition have told the United Nations that Syrian military intelligence has taken up new positions "and has been using headquarters of parties affiliated with the government of Syria as well as privately rented apartments for their purposes," said a report Annan made to the Security Council and released Tuesday.
The report notes Syria and the pro-Syrian government in Beirut have denied those allegations, and it confirms Syria closed its intelligence headquarters at Beirut's Beau Rivage hotel. But the Bush administration, which with France co-sponsored the U.N. resolution requiring Syria's pullout, said Damascus is not complying.
Syrian intelligence is also deployed in Palestinian refugee camps and communities, some of which have suddenly grown larger, the Washington Post reported, quoting unnamed U.S. officials and Western diplomats.
Syria's intelligence network has been its chief means of influencing Lebanese political and economic life for almost three decades. About 5,000 Syrian intelligence operatives were deployed in Lebanon, U.S. and European officials said.
The United States is counting on a new U.N. team sent to Lebanon this week to investigate Syria's intelligence presence and to provide "a considered judgment" that will "inform our deliberations" at the Security Council. If Syria does not comply, Washington and Paris may propose punitive steps, said deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. The Lebanese government told the United Nations the withdrawal is complicated by family ties and a network of informers among Lebanese citizens, the U.N. report notes.
In another flap, the new U.N. report faces controversy because the revised text omitted the toughest criticism of Syria, including an assessment that its military intelligence shares responsibility for the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. His death triggered the backlash that forced Syria to withdraw. The revised text also eliminated language that said Syria "interfered with the details of government in Lebanon in a heavy-handed and inflexible manner," states a copy of the original report obtained by the Washington Post.
Information from the Washington Post and Associated Press was used in this report.