UNITED NATIONS, Nov 18 (KUNA) -- Lebanon on Thursday denied that weapons are being smuggled through its border from Syria to strengthen Hezbollah military might, and urged the international community to pressure Israel to exert serious efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire with its neighbour to the south.
In a position paper to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council President Marc Lyall Grant of the UK circulated today, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said "such allegations bear no relation to the truth and are designed to facilitate the targeting of innocent Lebanese civilians." It stressed that "all weapons that have been seized are remnants of the war conducted against Lebanon by Israel in the summer of 2006" and that the Lebanese Army and the Lebanese security apparatus "have not reported any incidence of weapon smuggling" during the last four months.
In his latest report to the Security Council on resolution 1701, which put an end to the war between Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006, Ban said Israel conveyed to his Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams "allegations of breaches of the arms embargo" across the border between Lebanon and Syria.
Ban said, however, that although the UN takes these allegations "seriously, it is not in a position to verify this information independently." Williams briefed the Council today in a closed-door meeting on the report amid reports that Israel decided yesterday "in principle" to withdraw from northern Ghajar, a village straddling the Lebanese-Israeli border.
On the Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, territory and territorial waters, the Lebanese position paper noted that they have almost quadrupled during the last nine months, going from three to four violations per day from mid 2006 to February 2010, to 11 violations per day from March 2010 to date.
"Lebanon demands the immediate cessation of such violations and rejects any attempt to link them to Israeli allegations of arms smuggling," it said.
If stability and security are to be reinforced, it argued, there must be a transition from the situation of a cessation of hostilities to a state of permanent ceasefire.
Following the Council meeting, Lebanese Ambassador Nawaf Salam told reporters, in reaction to the Israeli decision to withdraw "in principle" from the northern part of Ghajar, that "seeing is believing." Asked about the smuggling of weapons from Syria, Salam quoted from Ban's report which also said that "to date, UNIFIL has neither been provided with, nor found, evidence of the unauthorized transfer of arms into its area of operations." Williams told reporters that he welcomed Israeli and Lebanese commitment to the implementation of resolution 1701, but warned that "progress made so far could be undermined if the parties do not couple their assertion of support with further concrete steps." On the smuggling of weapons, Williams said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has referred openly to his group's "considerable" armaments and to the replenishment of those armaments since the 2006 war. "So I have to assume that this weaponry was smuggled into the country." He described the situation in Lebanon as "challenging" and stressed "the importance of dialogue among all Lebanese sides" to resolve all outstanding issues, "no matter how sensitive," such as the Special Hariri Tribunal.
He expressed hope that the indictment by the Tribunal "next week or next year, will not and should not" affect the role of UNIFIL and that its work "must not be impeded in any way." (end) sj.rk KUNA 182213 Nov 10NNNN