Vehicles Destined for Syria as U.N. Monitors Arrive at Beirut Airport

Ten vehicles belonging to the team of U.N. observers overseeing Syria’s shaky ceasefire arrived at the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport on Wednesday.

“Over the past hours, a private Italian jet landed at the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport carrying a Land Cruiser SUV. It was followed by three other planes coming from the Czech Republic and carrying nine vehicles belonging to the U.N. observers in Syria,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

“These vehicles will be transported to Syria, where they will be used by this team” of monitors, NNA said.

The observers have been in Syria since Sunday to oversee a tenuous six-day ceasefire aimed at ending 13 months of violence that the United Nations says has killed more than 9,000 people.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was due to report to the Security Council later on Wednesday on progress made by the advance team which is to be expanded to 30 members in the coming days.

He has made it clear the U.N. mission could not go forward if Damascus does not cooperate and guarantee the observers safe access across the country.

Approved under a U.N. Security Council resolution, the team is to be reinforced in the longer term with up to 250 international monitors, but this will require a new resolution.

Lebanese authorities have refused to allow U.N. observers to land in the defunct Qulaiat airport in the North to give them quick access to the Syrian province of Homs, An Nahar daily reported Wednesday.

The newspaper said the U.N. made the request given that the airport is at close proximity to Homs and could be used for the possible evacuation of casualties.

The Lebanese decision to refuse the international request came over fears that the Qulaiat airport could be used as a “humanitarian corridor” to aid those in need in Syria, which Lebanon had rejected as part of its policy in distancing itself from the Syrian crisis, An Nahar said.

The last time the government discussed the possible operation of the airport came after Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud called for activating the tourism sector across Lebanon.