Region | Syria
Syria acknowledges it can't proceed alone on border with Lebanon
Syria's border with Lebanon cannot be secured without Beirut's cooperation, the Syrian foreign minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:30 October 2, 2008
Beirut: Syria's border with Lebanon cannot be secured without Beirut's cooperation, the Syrian foreign minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Walid Al Mua'alem told the pan-Arab Asharq Al Awsat newspaper there was smuggling both to and from Lebanon - which Syria dominated until 2005 when it was forced to withdraw troops from its smaller neighbour.
"The question of the border between Syria and Lebanon needs two actions: delineation [of the frontier] and Syrian-Lebanese security cooperation," Al Mua'alem was quoted as saying. "... nobody can control the borders with Lebanon."
A UN Security Council resolution which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters called on Beirut to tighten border control to prevent arms smuggling.
A border assessment team dispatched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in July concluded there had "been no decisive impact on overall border security".
UN assessment
"The overall situation renders Lebanon's borders as penetrable as they were one year ago during the first assessment," the assessment team said in an August 26 report.
Al Mua'alem reiterated Syria's denial of the charge that it is the main transit route for weapons to Hezbollah.
Syria kept a tight grip on security and politics in Lebanon until the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The killing triggered international pressure which forced Syria to end a 29-year military presence in the country.
Speculation
Damascus has recently warned of growing militancy in north Lebanon. Syrian authorities have said a vehicle used in a suicide attack in Damascus on Saturday had crossed into the country from a neighbouring Arab state. They have not named the country. Along with Lebanon, Syria's Arab neighbours are Iraq and Jordan.
Syria sent hundreds of troops to its border with north Lebanon last week in a move the authorities said aimed to combat smuggling. Syria's foes in Lebanon have speculated Damascus could use insecurity in the north as a pretext for intervention.
Formal delineation of Syria's border with Lebanon is another UN Security Council demand. The countries' presidents agreed at an August summit to resume the work of a joint committee tasked with drawing the frontier.
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