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BEIRUT, Aug 24: Lebanon undertook on Thursday to prevent, what Israel alleges, arms smuggling from Syria, playing down a dispute between Damascus and Tel Aviv over whether UN forces should help the Lebanese army stop arms shipments to the Hezbollah.
It did not rule out asking UN troops to help the army with its border task under a truce between Israel and Hezbollah, but said the cabinet had not yet taken a decision.
Syria threatened on Wednesday to close the border if UN troops are deployed on the border as part of their mission to enforce the truce.
But Israel says it will not lift a sea and air blockade of Lebanon unless a reinforced UN peacekeeping force helps the Lebanese army control the border so that no new weapons reach Hezbollah in the south.
The dispute has the Lebanese government caught in the middle. Its priority is to reopen the country to the world but it has limited influence over Syria and Israel.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, in an interview broadcast on Thursday, said the cabinet would have to discuss the matter but Lebanon had no intention of showing hostility towards Syria.
“We want friendly relations with Syria and we are interested in the question of the border to prevent any infiltration into Lebanon,” he told the French TV channel TV5.
Culture Minister Tareq Mitri, who led Lebanon’s delegation in truce talks at the United Nations this month, told Voice of Lebanon radio: “The sovereignty of any state includes securing its border crossings, preventing any smuggling attempts, and this is what the Lebanese state is planning to do.”
TRUCE VIOLATION: The ceasefire is fragile and witnesses said Israeli warplanes flew over the Bekaa valley in the east of the country on Thursday — an act Lebanon and the United Nations consider to be a truce violation.
A squad of Israeli troops returned to the Lebanese border village of Houla, security sources said. Israel had withdrawn from Houla after the truce came into effect.
In the south Lebanese village of Marwaheen on Thursday, hundreds of mourners buried 23 people killed in an Israeli air strike on their van on July 15 while they were trying to flee.
Mourners showered the bodies with rice and flowers within sight of Israeli soldiers atop a hill nearby. The bodies were initially buried at a cemetery in the southern city of Tyre.
“I want to see them before they go. They left us alone,” said 17-year-old Zeinab Abdullah, who survived the attack but lost 12 relatives including her father. “I can’t stand living without them,” she added.—Reuters
