In The Days

• Source: New York Times
• Author: Warren Hoge
• News Date: 6/27/07

UNITED NATIONS, June 26 — The present state of border control is inadequate for preventing the smuggling of arms from Syria into Lebanon, according to a report that a United Nations assessment team submitted to the Security Council on Tuesday.

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.”
—Isaiah 17:1

“Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.”
—Zechariah 11:1

The team said it was unable to document a single instance of a seizure of arms at or near the border during a three-week visit to a 200-mile stretch of territory that concluded June 15.

The Security Council resolution that ended the war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia last August called on Lebanon to secure its borders and prevent the entry of unauthorized arms, with assistance from the enlarged United Nations force that was sent to south Lebanon to keep the peace.

The report said the task was one that the Lebanese Army was ill prepared to fulfill, because of lack of experience and equipment. Adding to the confusion, it said, is a division of labor among four Lebanese agencies with overlapping responsibilities.

Syria is a backer of Hezbollah and is widely suspected of helping it to rearm with smuggled weapons.

“There is no cooperation between the Lebanese agencies on the operational level and their Syrian counterparts,” the report said.

The team’s findings bolster a warning to the Security Council on June 11 by Terje Roed-Larsen, a special United Nations envoy, who drew an “alarming and deeply disturbing picture” of “a steady flow of weapons and armed elements across the border from Syria.”

After his briefing, the Council endorsed a policy statement that expressed its “deep concern at mounting information by Israel and other states of illegal movements of arms in Lebanon, and in particular across the Lebanese-Syrian border.”

The next day, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official dismissed Mr. Roed-Larsen’s comments as false and said the charges circulated to the Council had originated with Israel and were aimed at damaging Syrian-Lebanese relations. It did not identify the official.

The United Nations team recommended equipping the Lebanese with intelligence and rapid interception capacity.