Russia, Germany Demand Syria Quit Lebanon [View All]

[DoYouEverWonder]

Mar 03, 2005

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Russia and Germany joined an international chorus of demands for Syria to leave Lebanon, and President Bashar al-Assad was expected to travel to Saudi Arabia on Thursday for talks diplomats said would focus on a pullout.

"Syria should withdraw from Lebanon, but we all have to make sure that this withdrawal does not violate the very fragile balance which we still have in Lebanon, which is a very difficult country ethnically," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the BBC late on Wednesday.

Russia, Syria's main Cold War ally and still one of its best friends, abstained when the U.N. Security Council adopted U.S.- and French-sponsored Resolution 1559 in September calling for foreign forces to leave Lebanon and militias to disarm.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20050303/wl_nm/syria_dc