Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud pledged on Sunday to fight the violence gripping his country after three bombings in eight days raised fears of renewed sectarian bloodshed, while Syria withdrew more troops from Lebanon in line with international demands.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a senior US envoy condemned the attacks. Syrian troops, meanwhile, continued dismantling positions in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley on Sunday and headed home -- a key demand of the US, UN and the Lebanese opposition.
Some 35 military trucks loaded with soldiers, equipment, ammunition and towing anti-aircraft guns entered Syria at the Masnaa border crossing late Sunday, local journalists said.
The convoys left positions in the Deir Zanoun hills near Anjar in the valley close to the border and near a Syrian army radar station in the central Lebanese mountains.
Syrian soldiers also were dismantling eight other positions near the city of Baalbek and were expected to leave after midnight. Previous troop withdrawals have proceeded in the same fashion.
Leaders of the anti- and pro-Syrian camps also held their first talks in seven months.
The meeting between Druse leader Walid Jumblatt and Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, of the powerful Syrian-backed Hezbollah militant group, came amid a political deadlock hampering the formation of a Cabinet to arrange parliamentary elections before the May 31 expiration of the current legislature's term.
Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition has been courting Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group widely admired here for its social assistance and its military role in forcing Israel to leave southern Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year occupation. For its part, Hezbollah is seeking opposition assurances that it won't push for the group's disarmament following Syria's final troop withdrawal.
"The issue of weapons is not under discussion today," Jumblatt said, adding he will not let any new parliament be "hostile" to Syria or Hezbollah.
Saturday's blast at an industrial estate in the mainly Christian northeastern Beirut suburb of Bouchrieh injured five people and set at least six factories ablaze. It followed bombings targeting two Christian strongholds March 19 and 23 that killed three people and wounded at least 10.
"We will do all we can. We should all be united because this is how we can save the country," Lahoud, a Maronite Catholic and close Syrian ally, vowed after attending an Easter Mass service.
Lahoud has come under intense pressure from Lebanese opposition groups since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many here have blamed on Syrian and Lebanese authorities. Both governments deny the accusations.
Anti-Syrian leaders also have blamed Damascus and allied Lebanese security authorities for the recent bombings that they say are aimed at proving Syrian troops are needed to maintain security in Lebanon, which was ravaged by sectarian violence during its 1975-90 civil war.
Meanwhile, Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television on Sunday aired footage taken minutes before the massive bomb blast that killed Hariri and 17 other people. It showed a "suspect" white pickup truck that UN investigators have linked to the assassination.
The footage, taken by an HSBC bank security camera, showed the open-backed 1995 or 1996 model Mitsubishi Canter pickup truck driving six times slower than other vehicles near central Beirut's seafront St. Georges Hotel, the scene of the explosion.
Shortly after the truck passed out of the camera's view, Hariri's motorcade was taped entering the area. Seconds later, the camera's view finder is obscured by clouds of dust and debris from the blast.
The UN fact-finding mission's report into Hariri's killing, released Thursday, poured scorn over the Lebanese murder investigation and said authorities had found out little about the truck, despite having access to the bank camera's tape.
"This aspect of the investigation could have uncovered vital evidence," the report said, "including: the possible identity of the perpetrator or perpetrators, where the truck was parked immediately before the explosion and of critical importance, whether the truck continued on its journey and had no involvement in the assassination at all."
The UN secretary-general called on the Lebanese government to "rapidly" prevent security from deteriorating further.
"This latest violence must stop and ... Lebanese should be allowed to decide the future of their country free of violence and intimidation," Annan said in a UN statement.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion