Today's Telegraph records a remarkable development in Lebanon:

'Syria's 29-year military domination of Lebanon effectively ended yesterday as all but a token force of troops quit the country before a final ceremonial withdrawal tomorrow.With just 36 hours left before the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, delivers a report on the pullout to the Security Council, hundreds of army cars left in convoy for Syria. 'In the Bekaa Valley east of Beirut long columns of rain-drenched tank carriers, troop-laden lorries and military vehicles towing anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers clogged the roads to the border. At a Syrian base outside the Bekaa Valley town of Deir al-Ahmar, soldiers dismantled buildings and burned documents, local people said.

'In an indication that Damascus's intelligence presence in Lebanon was also finally crumbling, an intelligence outpost in the Bekaa Valley was torn down in the town of Jibjennine near the Syrian army's forward lines which overlook northern Israel. Cement blocks and barbed wire barricades at the base were bulldozed after the unit's commander Brigadier Ali Ayoub left for the border. A Lebanese military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "All Syrian troops will be gone by Monday except for those remaining for an official farewell ceremony Tuesday. After that they will all be gone. It will be over." '

Syria has been forced out of Lebanon, at root, because of America's liberation of Iraq. It's a step towards sanity and a ray of hope for the future of the Middle East.

Posted by melanie at April 25, 2005