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Muallem Sends Memo to Mansour, Urges Lebanese Army to 'Control Border'
[An Nahar] Damascus on Thursday called on the Lebanese army to "control the border to preserve security and stability," in the wake of Wednesday's Syrian air raid on the Bekaa border town of Arsal.Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said he received a memo from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem about the situation on the border between the two countries. Muallem cited the security agreements signed between Leb and Syria and underlined Damascus' "keenness on Leb's security," Mansour said. The Syrian minister "stressed the importance that the Lebanese army control the border to preserve security and stability," urging Lebanese authorities to "take the necessary measures that strengthen the joint efforts between the two brotherly countries and peoples, in the framework of mutual keenness on respecting the illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity of the two states." The Syrian memo comes after a Syrian helicopter gunship bombed Arsal on Wednesday morning, prompting the Lebanese army to issue an unprecedented statement in which it warned that it will immediately retaliate to any future attacks, as President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... threatened to file complaints with the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... and the U.N. Security Council. Posted by: Fred 2013-06-14 |
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