Posted on 08/23/2006 6:14:25 PM PDT by jdm
Syria said yesterday it would close its border with Lebanon if the United Nations stationed troops along it as part of its mission to enforce a UN-backed truce between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem made the threat in a meeting with Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja in Helsinki. "They indeed do not want this (the stationing of UN troops) and they announced they will close their borders if this takes place," Tuomioja told reporters afterwards.
"I didn't see there would be any other threat in this statement except for the fact that they will close their borders."
Such a move could effectively cut Lebanon off from the outside world. Its only other land border is with Israel, a state it does not recognise, and there is still an Israeli air and sea blockade of Lebanon in force, imposed in July at the start of the war with Hezbollah.
Israel wants UN troops to police Syrian-Lebanese border crossings to prevent weapons reaching Hezbollah, citing this as a reason for not fully lifting the blockade.
The Jewish state has eased the embargo since the August 14 ceasefire, but no flights can use Beirut airport and no ships can dock in Lebanese ports without its permission.
The Lebanese government is in the process of deploying 15,000 soldiers to the south to work alongside a similar number of UN peacekeeping troops.
Three Lebanese soldiers were killed yesterday while clearing unexploded Israeli shells, underscoring the dangers the troops, as well as tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians, face in the aftermath of the 34-day war.
The three were the first Lebanese troops to die since the army began moving south last Thursday.
The UN's bid to drum up support for a force to compliment the Lebanese army has proved difficult. About 2,000 UN soldiers already serve in Lebanon with a force called Unifil, but few nations appear willing to make up the additional 13,000.
European Union envoys met in Brussels to discuss the EU contribution, which has so far centred on Italy's promise to send 2,000 to 3,000 troops-about a third of the total envisaged European contingent.
A strong EU presence is seen as vital if the United Nations is to get an advance party of 3,500 troops on the ground by September 2 as planned. The bloc's foreign ministers are scheduled to meet tomorrow with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is then expected to fly on to the Middle East.
Annan's schedule has not been confirmed but UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said he would probably visit Hezbollah's main sponsors Syria and Iran, as well as Israel and Lebanon, in a bid to ensure the full implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the war.
"The visit to Iran, as to the other places, is to make sure that all those who have an influence in the implementation of 1701 use that influence positively," Dujarric said.
"The Iranians need to be part of that dialogue." If and when the extra U.N. troops arrive in Lebanon, they will find a landscape littered with unexploded Israeli ordnance.
A UN demining expert said on Tuesday the Israelis had dropped cluster bombs on at least 170 sites in the south, and that those that failed to explode could still kill.
Israel said it had passed maps to Unifil which showed where its exploded shells might lie. "We did this in an attempt to minimise casualties among the Lebanese population," an Israeli army spokesman said.
An Israeli soldier was killed and three were wounded on Tuesday night when they stepped on Israeli landmines in the south, the Israeli army said.
The war, in which nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed, erupted when Hizbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
The conflict overshadowed violence in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, where two journalists with U.S. television news channel Fox were kidnapped last week.
A previously unknown militant group, the "Holy Jihad Brigades", claimed responsibility yesterday and demanded the United States release "Muslim prisoners" within 72 hours. The group released a video of the two which bore many hallmarks of those issued by militants in Iraq. The rhetoric of the group seemed to mirror the heavily religious language of Iraqi insurgents.
bttt
Good. I don't think we could ask for more
Works for me. Next!
Mission Accomplished.
That's a threat?
Syria is bluffing, at least in the long term. Too much of their national economy comes from Lebanon.
Oh please no. (dripping sarcasm)
The rhetoric of the group seemed to mirror the heavily religious language of Iraqi insurgents.
DOH!
Promises, promises...
What happened to the 3? abducted troops?
This is up there with the Rats refusing to take a pay increase unless the min wage was increased.
How is Hezbollah suposed to be resupplied?
Change the headline to GOOD NEWS
And the downside is what?
I sure hope we don't sponsor a UN resolution to stop this.
So close them already. Just means there will be less traffic to search for arms smuggling.
Somebody hand me a clue card ... where's the downside to this again?
Silly Syrians. Haven't our Pro illegal alien politicians, other Liberals and the ACLU people told them closing the border won't work.
Of course I wish them success, it would be something we could get behind. But it would be a second successful effort along with the Berlin wall that fences do work.
What's the down side?
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