Lebanese President Emile Lahoud (left) and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad exhange documents during a meeting in Damascus, Syria, on March 7.

The promised redeployment of at least 14,000 troops fails to satisfy the demands of the United Nations, the United States and a determined Lebanese opposition, all calling for a complete withdrawal.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad gave no timeline for the soldiers' full retreat.

After the announcement, soldiers and military vehicles began to move east toward the Bekaa Valley, according to local news reports. It was the first concrete sign of retreat in weeks of political turmoil, but it was rebuffed as inadequate by tens of thousands of protesters who filled Lebanon's capital Beirut.

The Damascus meeting of Lahoud and Assad was a summit of two embattled rulers. Both men have been politically battered in recent weeks by the deteriorating patience, in the international community and on the streets of Beirut, for Syria's decades-long hold on Lebanese affairs.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 12, 2005
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