Posted on 09/01/2006 7:16:15 PM PDT by blam
Israel rejects Syria's arms embargo pledge
By Patrick Bishop in Beirut and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
(Filed: 02/09/2006)
Israel last night rejected Syria's pledge to Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, that it would prevent weapons being smuggled to Hizbollah across its border with Lebanon.
Syrian soldiers on parade at Riyyak airbase
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria told Mr Annan during talks in Damascus that he was prepared to deploy his military forces along the Lebanese border to enforce the arms embargo on Hizbollah demanded by security council resolution 1701.
Mr Assad has previously warned that Damascus would take the deployment of Western troops along Lebanon's border with Syria as a "hostile act".
Israeli officials were sceptical about the Syrian offer, pointing out that they did not believe Syria could be trusted to enforce the arms embargo as it had been the main supplier of arms to Hizbollah for more than two decades.
''Experience has taught us to be sceptical about undertakings made by Syria," said Mark Regev, a senior spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry.
''Syria has not always been up-front about its dealings with Hizbollah and what is required is a 180-degree change of attitude from Syria towards Hizbollah."
Mr Annan, who was in Damascus on the latest stage of an exhausting Middle East diplomatic odyssey, said he had been told that Syria would do its best to prevent arms reaching Hizbollah from across its borders.
Mr Annan said he had received assurances that the section of resolution 1701 that calls for an arms embargo would be enforced.
Syria promised to "set up an effective interdiction regime", which involved beefing up border patrols and liaising with the Lebanese military, border police and international experts who are expected to provide assistance. Syria also said it was prepared to carry out joint operations with the Lebanese army.
Mr Annan said: ''I think it can happen. It may not be 100 per cent but it will make quite a lot of difference if the government puts in place the measures it has discussed with me. I have no reason to believe that it will not be done."
Syria has always denied that it supplied Hizbollah with arms but the discovery of anti-tank weapons from its arsenals left behind on the battlefield tell a different story.
Syria is also believed to be the transit point to Lebanon for munitions provided by Hizbollah's principal patron, Iran.
By promising to implement the arms embargo, Syria is tacitly agreeing to stop its military support of Hizbollah and to cut off the militia's arms pipeline to Iran.
However, Israel reiterated its call for UN peacekeepers to be deployed along the Syrian-Lebanese border.
''Everyone understands that to implement [UN resolution 1701] Lebanese forces must be augmented by international forces," Mr Regev said. ''Stopping the flow of weapons across a very long border is a large challenge and they need help from international forces."
Syria reacted angrily to the demand, saying it would close its frontier with Lebanon if the deployment was made.
Lebanon, which has sent an extra 8,600 troops to patrol the border, said it has no plans to ask UN troops to join them, though European security experts, possibly from Germany, are expected to be sent as advisers.
Mr Annan said he also asked Mr Assad to use Syria's influence with Hizbollah to hurry the release of the two Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked the 34-day war.
The president told him that he supported the release of the soldiers in return for the freeing of Lebanese and Syrian prisoners held by Israel.
The arrival in Lebanon of a German intelligence chief, Ernst Uhrlau, has stoked speculation that Germany may act as an intermediary in a prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbollah, a role it has taken on in the past.
The partial implementation of resolution 1701 continued in southern Lebanon yesterday as ships carrying nearly 900 Italian troops prepared to dock near Tyre in the first major reinforcement of the existing UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil).
An international force of up to 15,000 will join the Lebanese army in securing the area over the coming months.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, said it had overcome Israel's objections and would be contributing 1,000 troops to the UN deployment.
Israel had said it would not accept the presence of soldiers from countries such as Indonesia with which it did not have formal diplomatic relations.
Hi! We're Syria and we're here to help.
LMAO
Israel would have to have lost it's collective mind to sign on to this pledge.
Anyone have a link to the picture of those tank missiles found in Southern Lebannon that had stamped on them, "Property of the Syrian army".
Mr Assad has previously warned that Damascus would take the deployment of Western troops along Lebanon's border with Syria as a "hostile act".
It would be a hostile act because those troops might interfer with all the weapons and drugs the Syrian government smuggles into Lebannon daily.
The Syrian economy took a big enough hit when the Lebanese regained control of many of their banks after the Syrian pullout and Syria couldn't launder russian mob money through the banks anymore. Cutting off Syrian drug and weapons smuggling would put the final nail in the Syrian GDP.
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