U.N. Moves to Stop Syria from Cheating on Lebanon's Evacuation

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has instructed his personal U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen to leave quickly for Damascus to see President Assad and make certain Syria was not cheating on its evacuation of Lebanon. Officials at the U.N. headquarters in New York refused to disclose the reason for Roed-Larsen's urgent mission. But diplomatic sources said Annan's move was prompted by Lebanese opposition charges that the Assad regime had left behind plenty of secret intelligence cells that staged a spate of bombings in Lebanon's Christian heartland in the past two months and assassinated An Nahar's journalist Samir Kassir, a fierce critic of Syria, in Beirut last week. The official U.N. announcement said Roed-Larsen was asked to travel to Damascus "as soon as possible" to see President Assad in connection with Security Council Resolution 1559, which demands that Syria should withdraw its army and intelligence service from Lebanon completely, saying also Hizbullah must disarm. The announcement came three days after the United States said it would like the U.N. Security Council to expand an international investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to include the killing of journalist Kassir. Roed-Larsen stepped down as Annan's top U.N. Middle East envoy last year but agreed to become his special envoy for implementation of Resolution 1559. A U.N. military team verified the pullout of all Syrian troops from Lebanon on May 23 but said it could not be certain that all intelligence operatives have left the country. The Beirut media said Tuesday the team might be ordered back to Lebanon if Roed-Larsen's talks with Assad were unsatisfactory. Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said: "certainly we have several outstanding issues, and at the top the list is the full implementation of Resolution 1559." U.N. associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Roed-Larsen's trip, saying "the Secretary-General expects that the United Nations and the government of Syria will continue to work closely together to ensure the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559." Pressed on the urgency of the trip, he said implementation of the resolution is continuing "and there are bound to be regular contacts between the U.N. and the Syrian leadership on this, but I have no further details on their specific agenda."(AP-Naharnet)