UNITED NATIONS (KUNA) -- Syria on Tuesday strongly rejected UN accusations, based on Israeli intelligence sources, that it is smuggling weapons through its border into Lebanon.Syria is "surprised at the acceptance by the UN of these fabricated claims put forward mainly by Israeli intelligence sources, (Syria) wishes to remind the Secretary-General and members of the Security Council of the fact that Israel's accusation that Syria is smuggling weapons is baseless," Syria's UN envoy Bashar Al-Jaafari said in letters to the Secretary-General and the council president, China, stating his country's position on the UN fourth report on the implementation of resolution 1701 of last summer.
In that report issued late last month on the implementation of resolution 1701, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "I urge the Syrian Arab Republic to do more to control its border with Lebanon and look forward to specific proposals from the Syrian authorities in time" for the next quarterly report due in September.
Al-Jaafari noted in his letters that Israel's claim that it possesses evidence of its accusation is, in itself, flagrant evidence that Israel is in contravention of council resolution 1701, as the claim is an implicit admission that Israel is violating Lebanese airspace at the Syrian borders, which in this case enables it to photograph any "vegetable or goods truck and tout the pictures as being of trucks carrying weapons." He said what is "most regrettable" is the inability of the council to take a single measure that would deter Israel and put an end to its encroachments and provocations, and its inability to address the root cause of the conflict in the region, namely the Israeli occupation of Arab territories.
He reiterated Syria's position that the demarcation of the border with Lebanon is a "bilateral sovereign matter" with Beirut and that Shebaa Farms will be dealt with bilaterally with Lebanon once Israel ends its occupation of the Golan Heights.
In the meantime, he stressed that his government has doubled the number of border guards on the Syrian side of the border and that it has "confiscated weapons that had been smuggled from Lebanon" into Syria and from Iraq to Lebanon through Syria.
Al-Jaafari urged the council, when carrying out its mandate to maintain international peace and security, "should not deal with the region's problems selectively."