Middle East: Syrian troops are supposed to begin a redeployment from northern Lebanon and the coastal mountains to the eastern Bekaa Valley today, after the presidents of Syria and Lebanon meet in Damascus to co-ordinate the redeployment, according to Lebanese defence minister Abdel Rahim Mrad.
Syria has been under intense pressure from the US, Europe and Arab leaders to withdraw 14,000 soldiers and thousands of mokhabarat (secret police) from Lebanon since the assassination of billionaire former prime minister Rafik Hariri on February 14th. Mr Hariri was about to join the anti-Syrian opposition at the time.
President Bashar al-Assad announced the move on Saturday night in a speech to the Syrian parliament.
In a strange juxtaposition made possible by technology, thousands of mostly Christian Lebanese protesters watched Mr Assad's speech live on giant screens in Martyrs Square in Beirut, just a few hundred metres from the tombs of Mr Hariri and the seven bodyguards who died with him.
In Damascus, the crowd outside the parliament cheered the Syrian president wildly, chanting: "With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Bashar."
Mr Assad received a standing ovation from the assembly when he said that Syria's intervention in Lebanon had been "crowned with success" when the civil war ended in 1990.
At the end of the hour-long speech, the protesters in Beirut booed the Syrian president, chanted: "We don't want your army in Lebanon" and sang the Lebanese national anthem.
Syria has become so unpopular that Lebanese troops had to guard Syrian intelligence offices in the Beau Rivage and "Smith's" sectors of west Beirut at the weekend out of fear that they might be overrun by angry mobs.
In tacit recognition of the anti-Syrian feeling which has taken root since Mr Hariri's assassination, Mr Assad said: "It is not permissible for Damascus to stay a day longer in Lebanon if the Lebanese are unanimous about a Syrian departure. Nor is it permissible for Syria to remain if its presence is a source of internal division, for we entered Lebanon to avoid division."
"The only thing we understood is that it's getting nearer," a young man exclaimed over the microphones on the stage in Martyrs Square when the speech was over. "Freedom! Independence!"
The European Union said that the redeployment to the Bekaa Valley was a good start, but the US State Department called it insufficient. Opposition leaders noted three major omissions in Mr Assad's speech: there was no mention of a timetable for the withdrawal of the troops or of the departure of the mokhabarat; nor was it clear exactly to where the Syrian troops would withdraw.
In line with earlier redeployments made under the provisions of the 1989 Taif accords, Mr Assad said: "We are going to withdraw our forces stationed in Lebanon to the Bekaa and then to the Syro-Lebanese border."
Syrian minister Bouthaina Shaaban said: "Absolutely. The troops will be deployed on the Syrian side of the border."
Carlos Eddé, leader of the Lebanese National Bloc, an opposition party, watched Mr Assad's speech in the 1930s villa in west Beirut where his grandfather, former president Émile Eddé, once lived. It was here that the Sunni Muslim Saeb Salam, Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt and Mr Eddé's uncle formed an alliance against the arrival of Syrian troops 29 years ago.
"I noticed Assad's arrogance towards the Lebanese, the way he divided us into 'nationalists' loyal to Syria and bad Lebanese who call for foreign intervention," Mr Eddé said.
The Syrian president said he "understood the feeling of bitterness" which his fellow Syrians felt "towards so much ingratitude, treachery and the lack of loyalty for what Syria has done for Lebanon".
Alluding to the anti-Syrian opposition, and in particular to Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose defection has deeply angered Damascus, Mr Assad said: "It seems they are not talking about the sovereignty of the Lebanese over Lebanon, but of any other country but Syria.
"When any foreign leader comes to Lebanon and talks about the heart of their domestic affairs, they are satisfied, happy. And when it concerns Syria, the immediate implication is that we are against sovereignty."
Syria's friends in Lebanon were a "solid foundation", but other Lebanese were "shifting sands" who had to be removed, the Syrian president said.
Mr Assad repeatedly seemed to threaten Lebanon with chaos in the wake of Syria's withdrawal. UN Security Council resolution 1559 contained no mechanism for organising the Syrian departure, he said.
"We favour progressive withdrawals, organised in co-ordination with Lebanese institutions. But if the United Nations thinks we should withdraw rapidly, despite the possible negative repercussions on Lebanon, let them assume responsibility for their decision."
Iraq had taught him that "even the biggest country in the world loses and fails when it goes against the will of the international community", Mr Assad said.
Following Mr Assad's speech, outgoing labour minister and the head of the Lebanese Baath Party Assem Kanso led a couple of dozen pro-Syrian demonstrators through the streets of Beirut.
"We will not allow those traitors to be at the forefront of the scene, we will cut their heads whether they like it or not," Mr Kanso said. "We will not allow the withdrawal of the Syrian army unless it is done with dignity."
The pro-Syrian demonstrators fired guns in the air on Sassine Square, in the Christian quarter of Ashrafieh, but were prevented by Lebanese troops from reaching the anti-Syrian demonstrators on Martyrs Square.
There are fears that rival demonstrations could spark violence in coming days. Three weeks after his death, the opposition has scheduled a sit-in and protest march from the site of Mr Hariri's murder to the Place des Martyrs today.
Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of the Shia Muslim Hizbullah movement which is backed by Damascus and Iran, announced that his group would hold a demonstration against resolution 1559 and to "show gratitude to Syria" tomorrow afternoon.
Hizbullah is to hold its demonstration in Riad Solh Square, just two blocks from the anti-Syrian demonstrators.