SYRIA/ LEBANON: Lebanon plays down Israel-Syria dispute over troops.

Lebanon undertook on Thursday (August 24) to stop smuggling from Syria, playing down a dispute between Syria and Israel over whether U.N. forces should help the Lebanese army stop arms shipments to Hizbollah guerrillas. It did not rule out asking U.N. troops to help the army with its border task under a truce between Israel and Hizbollah , but Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said no decision had been taken. Syria threatened on Wednesday to close the border if the United Nations deployed troops there as part of its mission to enforce the truce, which came into effect 10 days ago. In a television interview on Tuesday (August 22) , Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rejected Israeli demands for the deployment of international troops on the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop what Israel says is the smuggling of arms to Hizbollah. "Firstly, this would negate Lebanese sovereignty. There is no state in the world that would accept to have on its borders soldiers that are not of its own nationality unless there is a war with another state as is the situation in Golan or the situation in southern Lebanon. This is natural. So firstly this is a withdrawal of Lebanese sovereignty and they speak of Lebanon sovereignty constantly - its submission to others, direction. The other point is that it is a hostile position towards Syria and naturally it will create problems between Syria and Lebanon," Assad said in a Dubai Television interview aired on Wednesday (August 23). Israel says it will not lift a sea and air blockade of Lebanon unless a reinforced U.N. peacekeeping force helps the Lebanese army control the border so that no new weapons reach Hizbollah 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. On Thursday, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora reiterated Lebanon's sovereignty and the need to protect its borders. "The Lebanese army has been deployed already along the border. He (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) said only about the international force. Now you are talking about the Lebanese army. The Lebanese army has been deployed and we are looking into this matter and see how we can get some assistance from the friendly countries so that we have the detection, electronic detection, of any infiltration and to track down these things," Siniora said in an interview with Italian television. The United Nations is trying to assemble a force of 15,000 to monitor a truce in southern Lebanon after a 34-day war between Israeli and the Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla group Hizbollah, which ended eight days ago with an uneasy truce. But Israel also wants U.N. troops to police border crossings between Lebanon and Syria to prevent weapons smuggling. If that was to happen Syria has warned if would close the border with Lebanon, effectively cutting Lebanon off from the outside world. Residents in Beirut, facing a massive task of rebuilding their war-torn country, gave a mixed reaction to Syria's threat. "It is right, an international force should be between two countries that are at war. If we consider Israel to be an enemy, then we should put an international force. But if it is friendly then we shouldn't put troops there. The international force should be put between Lebanon and Israel and Syria and Israel," said one unidentified resident of the southern suburbs, a Hizbollah stronghold. "This is not good and things shouldn't be like that between two neighbouring countries. Of course they are putting pressure on Lebanon and it shouldntt be like that with two neighbouring countries," said Ali Mohammed. Lebanon's borders are also littered with thousands of unexploded ordnances and on Wednesday, the Lebanese army had its first casualties. Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon when an unexploded ordnance blew up accidentally. Witnesses said the blast killed them instantly and set fire to one of them, "Yesterday at one o'clock we heard a big explosion, we rushed here. We found two from the army and one burning. The civil defence came and took them away. This is the bomb that exploded," Hassan Ataya from the village of Tebnine said. The blast also damaged nearby houses, and started a fire put out by local firefighters. The truce ended a month of war in which nearly 1,200 in Lebanon, mostly civilians, were killed. Hizbollah killed 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers. The war erupted after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. The ceasefire in Lebanon is fragile and witnesses said that Israeli warplanes flew over the Bekaa valley in the east on Thursday -- an act Lebanon considers a truce violation.

ITN Source | August 24, 2006

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