An official ceremony was held near the Syrian border on Tuesday to mark the completion of withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

Top military officials from the two countries participated in the farewell ceremony at a Lebanese army air base at Rayak in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The gathering was meant to announce the end of Syria's 29-year military presence in its smaller neighbor. 

Syrian army chief of staff Ali Habib made a speech in the ceremony, saying that President Bashar Assad decided to withdraw his troops after the Lebanese army was rebuilt on sound national foundation and became capable of protecting the state.

The troops withdrawal indicates that Syria has fulfilled all its obligations toward UN Resolution 1559, Habib said, but he added that it does not mean the end of Syrian-Lebanese ties.

"The relations will continue and become stronger at present and in the future," he declared.

Syria began pulling out its 14,000 troops from Lebanon in March under mounting international pressure combined with mass Lebanese opposition which was triggered by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14.

Assad promised to complete the process by the end of April in line with UN Resolution 1559 which was passed in September.

Syria has been the main powerbroker in Lebanon since it first deployed troops there a year after the 1975 outbreak of the civil war, and further tightened its grip after the conflict ended in 1990.
 

Addressing the ceremony, Lebanese army commander Michel Suleiman praised Syria's army presence in Lebanon.

The Syrian troops helped rebuild the Lebanese army, maintain peace among the country's 17 sects and end the 1975-90 civil war, he said.

"Together we shall always remain brothers in arms in the face of the Israeli enemy," Suleiman continued.

During the hour-long ceremony, Lebanese and Syrian military officers placed a wreath of flowers at a cornerstone they laid for a monument to commemorate the Syrian military presence in Lebanon, and they also exchanged medals.

About 250 Syrian soldiers in red berets attended the ceremony. They were the last batch of Syrian troops remained in Lebanon and as scheduled, they drove across the border point of Masnaa aboard eight buses and four jeeps shortly after the ceremony.

Minutes before the soldiers' departure, the Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazali, arrived at the same border crossing with 10 carloads of intelligence agents and crossed into Syria.

A small crowd of Lebanese were waiting at Masnaa to bid farewell to Ghazali, who got out of his car and accepted a poster from a man saying "Thank you Syria."

Ghazali left Lebanon on Monday before returning for Tuesday's ceremony with the remaining Syrian troops.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2005)