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Army Rejects Israeli Claims of Weapons Smuggling from Syria

The Lebanese army has said that Lebanon's borders were under tight control and rejected Israeli claims of arms smuggling from Syria.
"The land and sea borders are controlled in a very meticulous and effective way, and there are no acts that indicate that there are arms entering Lebanon," the army command said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Therefore, the army command considers that the declaration of the Israeli defense minister is an interference in Lebanese internal affairs that aims at shaking (Lebanon's) stability," it said.

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would continue surveillance flights over Lebanon as long as arms smuggling from Syria continued in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Jewish state's summer war on Hizbullah.

"His remarks are just... pretexts to pursue aggressions on Lebanon, through ever-increasing airspace violations and a failure to abide by Resolution 1701," it said.

On Sunday, a senior Israel intelligence officer charged that Syria was aiding arms smuggling into Lebanon in violation of Resolution 1701 which ushered in a truce on August 14 after 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hizbullah.

Israel charges that Iran and Syria have for years helped arm Hizbullah, a charge both countries deny. Since the end of the war, around 8,000 Lebanese soldiers have been deployed to control the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was quoted as saying by the Spanish newspaper El Pais earlier this month that no army deployment along the border could be efficient if "there is a will to smuggle arms into Lebanon."(AFP) (AFP photo shows soldiers manning a checkpoint in a Lebanese village)

Beirut, 18 Oct 06, 13:34


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