Russia and Germany have joined the international chorus of demands for Syria to leave Lebanon.
"Syria should withdraw from Lebanon," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the BBC Wednesday.
"But we all have to make sure this withdrawal does not violate the very fragile balance which we still have in Lebanon, which is a very problematic country ethnically."
Russia, Syria's main Cold War ally and still one of its best friends, abstained when the U.N. Security Council adopted the U.S and French-sponsored Resolution 1559 in September, calling for foreign forces to leave Lebanon and militias to disarm.
But Lavrov said the resolution, like any other Council measure, must be implemented, a stance that further ratcheted up world pressure on Syria to withdraw its 14,000 troops.
Syria intervened militarily in Lebanon's civil war in 1976 and has had troops there ever since, though their numbers have dropped since the Taif Accord that ended the 1975-90 conflict.
Syrian President Bashar Assad was quoted by Time magazine on Tuesday as saying he could pull out the remaining troops within months.
Germany also demands pullout
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, visiting Yemen, also called on Syria to withdraw its troops immediately.
"Lebanon should be given an opportunity for sovereignty and development and this can only be achieved by compliance with Security Council resolutions that stipulate immediate Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon," Yemen's state news agency quoted him as saying at a meeting with his Yemeni counterpart on Wednesday.
