| Turkey hails Syrian
"determination" to withdraw from Lebanon ANKARA - Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Thursday welcomed Syria's
"determination" to pull its troops out of Lebanon as he returned from a state
visit to Turkey's southern neighbour.
"We underlined the importance of Syria withdrawing its troops from Lebanon, in line
with the demands of the international community and UN Security Council Resolution 1559,
before the elections" in Lebanon, Sezer told reporters at the Ankara airport.
"We were happy to see the Syrian side reiterate their political determination"
to go ahead with the withdrawal, he added.
Bowing to international pressure, Syria began pulling its troops out of Lebanon and
pledging to complete the withdrawal by the end of April, one month before Lebanese
elections scheduled for the end of May.
The political upheaval in Lebanon was high on the agenda of the talks Sezer held with
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during his two-day trip in defiance of pressure from the
United States for Ankara to limit its cooperation with Damascus.
The two leaders stressed the need to preserve "the stability and national unity of
Lebanon" and agreed to boost their flourishing ties.
"I am happy to see that the resolution of past problems with common sense and in a
spirit of cooperation has opened up new opportunities in our relations," Sezer said.
Turkey and Syria have greatly improved their stormy ties since 1998, when they came to the
brink of war over Ankara's accusations that Damascus was sheltering separatist Kurdish
militants fighting the Turkish government.
The crisis was resolved when Damascus expelled Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and
signed a security deal with Ankara, pledging to stop supporting Ocalan's Kurdistan
Workers' Party, better known as the PKK. |
