SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia added a key Arab voice yesterday to mounting demands that Syria withdraw its troops swiftly from Lebanon, where they have helped secure its powerful influence for decades.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad flew to Riyadh for crisis talks where Saudi's crown prince Abdullah told him immediate action was needed. Prince Abdullah, a regional ally of the US, told President al-Assad that "Syria must start withdrawing soon, otherwise Saudi-Syrian relations will go through difficulties", one Saudi official said.
"They know what they should do. They should withdraw immediately," another Saudi source said of the Syrians.
Russia, long one of Syria's best friends, also said the troops should go - a change for a country that abstained when the UN Security Council passed a US-inspired resolution to that effect in September.
"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," said foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.
Another Arab heavyweight, Egypt, also wants President al-Assad to pull out his 14,000 troops in compliance with the resolution and the Taif Accord that ended Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, visiting Yemen, also called on Syria to take its troops out immediately