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Lebanon plays down Israel-Syria dispute over troops

Posted on: Thursday, 24 August 2006, 06:32 CDT

By Alaa Shahine

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon undertook on Thursday 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 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.

But 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.

Culture Minister Tareq Mitri, who led the Lebanese delegation in truce talks at the United Nations this month, said: "The Lebanese government is working hard to secure the border and lift the (Israeli) blockade."

"The Lebanese stance is clear. 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," he told Voice of Lebanon radio.

Salloukh played down the urgency of taking a decision, noting that the Lebanese army has many troops on the border.

"When we see that this issue deserves discussion, the cabinet will discuss it. If the Lebanese government sees it needs to resort to international forces, it will do that. It's up to the government to decide," he told reporters.

GAZA DEATHS

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.

In parallel, conflict has continued between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is trying to free another captured soldier. On Thursday, Israelis killed three Palestinians and seized a senior member of the Hamas movement, Younis Abu Daqqa. One of those killed was Abu Daqqa's brother.

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.

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.

The Lebanese army has started to deploy along parts of the Syrian border but the United Nations is finding it hard to muster more troop contingents to strengthen UNIFIL.

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht visited Beirut on Thursday and promised to take part in the force.

"He informed me that Belgium will contribute to the UNIFIL force in the south, but the numbers and the mechanism depend on the (European Union) meeting in Brussels tomorrow," Salloukh told reporters at a joint news conference with Gucht.

European Union president Finland said it hoped to see reinforcements deployed in Lebanon in a week.

President Jacques Chirac of France, which has sent a contingent of 200 to Lebanon and was originally expected to lead the force, will announce French plans for Lebanon on Thursday.

The U.N. resolution setting the terms for the ceasefire calls for the removal from south Lebanon of armed personnel other than those of UNIFIL and the Lebanese army.

But one of the two Hizbollah members of the cabinet, Labor Minister Trad Hamadeh, was quoted as saying that disarming Hizbollah was not the immediate priority.

"Hizbollah's arms are defensive. Once a national plan of defense for Lebanon is laid out, we will talk about arms," he told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in an interview.

Source: REUTERS

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