TEHRAN - Iran's foreign ministry asserted Sunday that mounting international pressure on Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon once and for all was merely part of a plot orchestrated by Israel.
"It should be noted that the pressures on Syria, using the pretext of pulling out of Lebanon, is apparently a predetermined plan by the Zionist regime in order to guarantee the expansionist policies of Israel," said foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
Iran is Syria's closest regional ally.
Asefi said that for Iran, the issue of Syrian troops in Lebanon was a "bilateral matter" to be worked out between Beirut and Damascus.
"We respect any joint decision taken by Syria and Lebanon," Asefi said, while also urging the Lebanese to "pay attention to their country's sensitive circumstances and not to jeopardise their unity and integrity."
Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad announced Saturday the redeployment of his country's troops from Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa valley and then to the Syrian border, but he did not give a timetable.
The announcement came amid international pressure, led by France and the United States, on Damascus to end its three-decades-old military presence in Lebanon under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 which they sponsored last year.
03/06/2005 09:35 GMT