A few diehard activists remained in tents overnight and about 400 protesters joined them midmorning, but Lebanese soldiers had been withdrawn from the area where the day before 25,000 flag-waving demonstrators demanded and got Prime Minister Omar Karami’s resignation.

“We will be here every day until the last Syrian soldier withdraws from our land,” one activist said through a loudspeaker. The crowd, blowing whistles, chanted back: “Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence.”

I believe them. Some protestors in Kyiv stayed all two months.

Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud has granted MPs 48 hours to decide on a candidate for the post of prime minister which is customarily given to a member of the Sunni Muslim community, a presidential spokesman told AFP.

Walid Jumblatt, the prominent Druze opposition MP, called for the formation of a “neutral” transitional government which should oversee a partial withdrawal of Syrian troops ahead of elections due by the end of May.

He said Lebanon refused to “remain hostage” to Syria, which first sent its troops into its smaller neighbour a year into the civil war and still has about 14,000 men on the ground.

“We cannot accept to be fooled all the time. This is the fifth so-called Syrian army redeployment,” he said of a recently promised Syrian troop move that has yet to be carried out.

Opposition MP Ghassan Mukheiber also told AFP that “we are seeking a prime minister who will be neutral and not from any of the two camps.”

“We want an interim cabinet to uncover the truth about Hariri’s assassination, draft a law and oversee elections this spring and reach an agreement for a Syrian pullout which should be achieved before the elections are held,” he said.

Neutrality is impossible in this situation. The person obviously needs to be pro-Lebanon, anti-Syria if he is going to call for Syria to leave. Perhaps Jumblatt is making phone calls for himself, otherwise he wouldn’t have a reason to be speaking so loudly.

BEIRUT – Syrian president Bashar al-Assad said Syrian troops might pull out of Lebanon in the next few months, as Lebanese protesters rallied in central Beirut demanding Syria get out of their country.

Syria, which has 14,000 troops in Lebanon, has come under increasing pressure as a result of demonstrations following the assassination last month of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.

“It (withdrawal) should be very soon and maybe in the next few months. Not after that,” Assad said an interview conducted on Monday and published by Time magazine on its website on Tuesday.

“I could not say we could do it in two months because I have not had the meeting with the army people. They may say it will take six months,” he added.

Some normal citizens seem cautionary, and while this may just be a pulled quote, it is certainly valid:

“Even if the Syrians will pull out, it will be more of a symbolic step then a practical one,” said George Salim, 25, who visits Hariri’s grave every day. “We know that they will still intervene in our internal affairs and mess in our business. It’s not Ukraine here, things are not done so easily. Lebanon is just making the first steps on the road to freedom, and who know what will be the end?”

But then again, the now ex-PM of Lebanon once thought the same thing. Heh. Chibli Mallat thinks that the president should resign as well.

LONDON, March 1 (AFP) – France and the United States spearheaded a major effort Tuesday to drive Syrian troops out of embattled Lebanon and pave the way for free elections under the watchful eyes of an international force.

In a rare display of unity, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for the immediate withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the holding of free and fair elections there.

“We fully support the Lebanese people in their pursuit of an independent, democratic and sovereign Lebanon, free of outside interference and intimidation,” they said in a joint statement on the sidelines of a meeting on Palestinian reforms in London.

They said their presidents — George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac — had “instructed us to work urgently together and with the international community to help realize that fundamental goal”.

Seen to be seizing the opportunity arising from the dramatic collapse of the pro-Syrian government in Lebanon in the face of mass public protests, the foreign ministers pushed for internationally-observed elections within the first half of this year.

The Lebanese “must have the opportunity to chart their own course through free and fair parliamentary elections this spring, bolstered by an international observer presence prior to and during the elections,” the ministers said.

A US State Department official said Washington was considering helping the Lebanese government exert greater control of the country.

“We know how difficult it might be for the Lebanese government to extend its authority throughout Lebanon and we would be looking for a range of things in order to help them,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Asked whether security assistance would be part of the offer, the official said: “Well, there are various kinds of things we might do.”

Christmas comes early this year for Lebanese Christians! Here’s the press release.

-Al-Hurra TV reports live from the demonstrations in downtown Beirut. Yes, they are still going on, and will continue indefinitely, according to opposition leaders. I have no numbers available, though.
-LBC reports that the opposition will meet in Walid Jumblatt’s stronghold of Mukhtara mid-day tomorrow. In the same statement, Jumblatt re-stated his demand that all security chiefs in the Lebanese government be fired, and he issued an ominous warning that the situation will become “more dangerous” if their demands are not met. I don’t know exactly what he means by this, but Jumblatt remains the only wartime militia commander whose supporters remain armed significantly. No doubt he intends this to be a bluff, but one wonders with this guy; he has quite the spotted history.

There’s more. My favorite was the now ex-PM going back to his hometown and talking trash. The first stage is always denial.