Syrian President Bessar Asad will address the Syrian National Assembly tomorrow and announce plans to withdraw troops from Lebanon in the speech scheduled in Damascus tomorrow afternoon.

The AP, however, reports that insiders say that the Baathist dictator will announce a partial withdrawal only. Yesterday, during a state visit to Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdel Aziz warned the Syrian dictator to begin withdrawing its troops from Lebanon or face growing isolation. France, historically a backer of the Syrian dictatorship, has also called for the withdrawal.

Syria now stands isolated, with only rogue terrorist-sponsoring nations like Iran, supporting the decades old occupation of Lebanon.

When France doesn't support your dictatorship and supports an initiative from President Bush--who began the diplomatic pressure on Syria weeks ago--they you know you are isolated. President Bush has demanded Syria pull out prior to scheduled May elections.

Lebanese opposition parties, for their part, have made it clear that nothing short of a complete withdrawal of Syrian troops would satisfy them.

UPDATE: Reuters now reporting the same thing:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to announce on Saturday the pullout of some Syrian troops from Lebanon and the redeployment of the rest close to the border, a Lebanese political source said on Friday.
Assad, who delivers a speech at Syria's parliament on Saturday, is expected to declare the move in line with the Taif Accord which ended Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, the source said.

Taif stipulates Syrian forces redeploy to the eastern Bekaa Valley and then the Lebanese and Syrian governments agree on a timeline on how long these forces would stay.

Syrian officials had no comment on the report.

Assad told Time magazine in an interview published this week that Syria's 14,000 troops might pull out of Lebanon in the next few months, the timing being technical rather than political.

Saudi Arabia added a key Arab voice on Thursday to mounting demands that Syria withdraw its troops swiftly from Lebanon. Another Arab heavyweight, Egypt, also wants Assad to pull out his 14,000 troops.

Ahh--HE LIVES and Speaks!!

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