CAIRO, February 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara stressed Sunday, February 27, that his country has no preconditions before withdrawing troops from neighboring Lebanon.

“Syria has undertaken to respect all of its obligations under the Taif agreement,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted the top diplomat as having said after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“There is no consensus in Lebanon on [UN Security Council] Resolution 1559 but there is complete consensus on the Taif agreement,” he added.

The 1989 Taif agreement, which put an end to Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, provides for “the two governments to determine the strength and duration of the presence of the Syrian forces” but does not set a specific deadline for a Syrian withdrawal.

Shara said that UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen “does not find a big difference between implementing the Taif agreement or 1559.

“So, implementing the Taif agreement is indirectly implementing resolution 1559,” he said.

Analysts said Syria, by seeking to link the Taif agreement and resolution 1559, could be looking for a way to implement the UN resolution without losing face, according to Reuters.

Lebanese Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad confirmed Thursday, February 24, that Syria will soon redeploy its troops to the eastern Bekaa Valley in conformity with the Taif agreement.

There have been a series of redeployments since June 2001, which have seen Syrian troop numbers fall from a high of 40,000 after they first moved in a year after the start of Lebanon's civil war to the current 14,000.

But last September the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1559 sponsored by Paris and Washington demanding the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon, a clear reference to the Syrian forces.

The United States and France have been piling pressure on Syria for a complete withdrawal of troops and intelligence services.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said talks between Shara and Mubarak covered implementing the Taif agreement and the “connection or link between implementing resolution 1559 and its relation to the Taif agreement”.

He Egypt was trying to sell a compromise solution to France and the United States.

“Egypt believes the situation is delicate and sensitive, and requires action” that achieves an “overlap between the Taif agreement and Resolution 1559.”

Four days ago Egypt dispatched intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to Damascus for talks to “contain the situation in Syria and Lebanon within an Arab framework.”

Shara said Syria was seeking Arab support to face down what he described as unprecedented US-led pressure on regional governments.

After talks with Abul Gheit, he told reporters that no regional government was now immune to US pressure, a reference to calls from Washington for Cairo and Riyadh to pursue democratic reforms.

“It's perhaps the first time that US pressure is aimed at Arab governments,” Shara said.

“These pressures are a serious wake-up call for Arabs to recover their solidarity and a little respect. We must not simply bow to diktat, we must pursue dialogue and cooperation.”

Shara said he would travel to Saudi Arabia for talks with Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz on Monday, February 27, while Mubarak would visit Damascus for a summit with President Bashar al-Assad “soon”.

Fearing a recurrence of the Iraqi scenario, Arab countries are intensively moving on various levels to spare Syria the predicament Iraq's Saddam faced that eventually led to the invasion-turned-occupation of the Arab country, a senior Arab official told IslamOnline.net on February 21.