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Withdrawal of Troops – 1989

Taif Accord sought to exercise the sovereignty of the Lebanese state over its internationally recognized territory and therefore had the provisions of troop withdrawal. At the time of the signing of the agreement, Syria has about 40,000 troops in Lebanon controlling about 65% of the country. Israel had a force of 1,500-3,000 in southern Lebanon in the so-called “security zone”. Israel had also resettled some 200,000 of its 2.7 million population in the controlled territory.[fn]Sandra M. Saseen, “The Taif Accord and Lebanon’s Struggle to Regain Its Sovereignty,” American University Journal of International Law and Policy 6, no. 1 (1990): 57, footnotes 2, 3.[/efn_note] Syria had accepted the principle of an eventual troop withdrawal from all the Lebanese territory but not such withdrawal took place in 1989. Similarly, Israel continued its occupation.