DAMASCUS - Syria's announced pullback of troops in Lebanon may not be the full withdrawal the international community was seeking, but Damascus has taken some steps to try to avoid a major showdown with the West.
"Please send this message: I am not Saddam Hussein. I want to cooperate," Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told US news magazine Time in an interview conducted last week.
That statement appeared to be a response to the mounting US and French pressure for a full and immediate pullout of Syria's 14,000 troops and unknown number of intelligence officers from Lebanon.
Calls for an end to Syria's military and political sway over Lebanon three decades after it first sent in troops have intensified since the killing of ex-Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on February 14.
Statements by Assad and other Syrian officials as well as some concrete moves on the ground are seen as small but significant measures aimed at showing that Damascus is willing to do what the international community wants.
"The Syrian decision shows that... Damascus has chosen to avoid a crisis which some were trying to blow out of proportion," an editorial in Saudi daily Al-Watan said.
The move also shows that Syria "wants to maintain some sort of communication with international powers, hoping to defuse future crises," the paper added.
According to Western diplomats in Damascus, Assad does not want to be seen by the Syrian public as giving in to pressure from the United States, as the country celebrates a national holiday Tuesday marking the 42nd anniversary of the Baath party's rise to power.
On Saturday, in a rare appearance before the Syrian parliament, Assad announced the two-stage pullback, first to the eastern Bekaa Valley and then to the Syrian border. Then on Monday, he and Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud announced the pullback would be complete by the end of March.
And Syrian troops began packing up and leaving their positions in Lebanon on Monday and Tuesday although Lebanese officials said the pullback would not formally start until Wednesday.
In his speech to parliament, Assad did not say whether Syrian intelligence agents would also leave Lebanon. But a Syrian official who asked not to be named said they would also be pulled out.
It is not known exactly how many agents are in Lebanon, but Western experts estimate their number to be several thousand.
Observers have stressed it will be difficult to verify that the agents have actually left the country, due to the secret nature of their work.
Faced with only a trickle of information out of Damascus over the past days, observers are left to speculate about the intentions of Assad, who took power on the death of his father Hafez al-Assad in 2000.
Syria's official state media outlets have covered the recent developments in factual news reports only, providing no editorials or commentary.
Some Syrian officials have denounced "America's hegemony" in international politics, saying Washington's demands are unfair and influenced by Israel.
Other Syrian opposition and intellectuals have warned of the danger of an aggressive attitude towards Damascus, saying there is "real change" underway in the country.
Yet others diplomats suggest that senior Damascus officials are leading the push for change.
Meanwhile, Assad stressed in his speech that he had decided to have "a positive attitude" to UN Resolution 1559, which he said was "not incompatible" with Taef accords that paved the way for the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and laid down a framework for Syrian troop redeployments.
03/08/2005 14:43 GMT - AFP