UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said he is happy with "visible" progress made by Syria in withdrawing its forces from Lebanon. Annan was speaking on Friday after a UN Security Council meeting on implementation of Resolution 1559, which calls for Syrian troops and intelligence agents to leave Lebanon immediately and demands the disarming of militia. Annan told reporters at the UN that since Syrian forces had been asked to withdraw, the disarmament of the militia would have to be carried out by the Lebanese government. "Hopefully the groups concerned will agree to disarm themselves and cooperate with the Lebanese authorities because it is not going to be an easy task if it has to be done by force or imposition," he said. "I would hope governments that have influence in the region and can help in the process would do so."
His envoy, Terje Roed-Larson earlier on Friday gave a report to the Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 1559. "It was the Lebanese Civil war that led to the deployment of foreign forces on Lebanese terrority. Now, 30 years after the eruption of the Civil War, a full and complete Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon would represent a significant and important step towards drawing a final line under the saddest chapter in Lebanese history," he said.
Hizbollah leader Shaikh Hassan Nasrallah on Monday repeated the stance that the UN resolution did not apply because the group was not a militia but "a resistance (movement)".
| ... and then his lips fell off. |