Syria and Lebanon to boost border, anti-terror controls

DAMASCUS (AFP) — Syria and Lebanon decided on Monday to boost border controls and anti-terrorism coordination, as the two neighbours took a new step to strengthen ties since diplomatic relations were established.

The decision came during the first visit to Damascus by a Lebanese interior minister since the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s five-time former premier Rafiq Hariri.

Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdul Majid in talks with his Lebanese counterpart Ziad Baroud agreed to set up a commission “to put into place the basis of coordination in the fight against terrorism and crime.”

According to a statement read out to reporters after the meeting, the commission would also be tasked with establishing a joint mechanism to police the border.

Baroud was accompanied by Lebanese security chiefs Wafiq Jizzini and Ashraf Rifi.

In Beirut, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a leading anti-Syrian figure, criticised the decision to form a joint security commission.

It could lead to “renewed Syrian interference in the affairs of Lebanon,” he warned in an editorial due to appear on Tuesday of his Progressive Socialist Party’s weekly newspaper.

The visit comes almost three months after Lebanese President Michel Sleiman made a landmark visit to Damascus and less than a month after Syria and Lebanon decided to establish diplomatic relations for the first time.

Cross-border smuggling figured high on the agenda of Baroud’s talks, after Syria deployed reinforcements along its border with Lebanon in what it terms an anti-smuggling operation.

Abdul Majid and Baroud discussed means to boost links between their ministries and the two countries’ security services.

The two ministers also reviewed the “confessions” broadcast by Syrian state television last week by alleged Fatah al-Islam militants for a deadly September 27 car bombing in Damascus.

In the broadcast, the suspects said that Fatah al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda-linked group which battled the Lebanese army last year, had links to the anti-Syrian bloc of Saad Hariri, the parliamentary majority leader in Beirut.

Baroud became the first Lebanese interior minister to visit Damascus since Syrian troops pulled out of Lebanon in April 2005 after a 29-year deployment, following charges of Syrian involvement in the murder of Rafiq Hariri.

Damascus has repeatedly denied the charge.

Advisor to McCain’s Campaign: Syria Involved in Hariri’s Murder

The advisor to U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign has accused Syria of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination and said Hizbullah put itself on the terror list when it intimidated Beirutis last May.
Reports of U.N. investigators reveal Syria’s involvement in the “heinous crime” in 2005, Robert “Bud” McFarlane told al-Mustaqbal daily in remarks published Monday.

McFarlane, who was National Security Advisor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan, also said it was important for the international community to bring the culprits to justice.

He hoped that the next report on Hariri’s assassination would reveal new facts about the crime.

There was no explanation for the Hizbullah attacks on media outlets belonging to the Hariri family in May when the Shiite group’s fighters clashed with al-Mustaqbal movement gunmen, McFarlane said.

Najjar: 745 Lebanese Citizens Missing in Syria

Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said Lebanon is asking for revealing the fate of 745 citizens missing in Syria.
Najjar, in a television interview, said these citizens are divided into two main categories, convicts and kidnap victims.

The justice ministry should handle the convicts’ issue, he said.

Najjar, however, did not say which department should follow up the issue of kidnap victims.

Najjar’s classification is the first by a Lebanese government official of the issue related to the fate of Lebanese citizens held in Syrian jails.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Wednesday some Lebanese citizens were kidnapped by the Syrian army and allied militias in Lebanon.

The kidnapped citizens were taken to the neighboring country during the 30 years of Syrian military deployment in Lebanon, Geagea added.

Lebanon PM’s visit builds Syria bond

Lebanon and Syria yesterday agreed on a range of measures to reduce tensions, following the establishment of full diplomatic relations on Wednesday for the first time since both countries became independent in the 1940s.

The agreements, announced at the end of the first visit to Damascus by Michel Suleiman, Lebanon’s new president and former army commander, are expected to ease Syria’s reconciliation with the west.

They pave the way for a visit to Damascus next month by Nicolas Sarkozy French president, who last month hosted President Bashar al-Assad in Paris, after years of western attempts to isolate Syria.

The restoration of ties marks the first formal Syrian recognition of the sovereignty of Lebanon, a country over which Damascus has often tried to exert influence, if not control.

Both sides agreed to work on demarcating the border – a long-standing Lebanese demand. Syria also agreed to look into the fate of hundreds of Lebanese citizens detained by Syrian forces during their 30-year military presence in Lebanon that ended in 2005.

Syria pulled its forces out of Lebanon following the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, former prime minister, in 2005, for which many Lebanese blamed Syria. Damascus has denied involvement.

Saad Hariri, Rafiq Hariri’s son and political heir, who leads the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Lebanon, welcomed the agreements. “This announcement is a historic step toward rectifying relations,” he said.

The rapprochement could be tested, however, when a United Nations investigation into Hariri’s killing publishes its results and when the international tribunal created by the UN to investigate the case starts issuing indictments.

Hours before the start of President Suleiman’s visit to Damascus, a bomb blast in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli killed at least 15 people, including 10 soldiers.

Hizbullah Deployed Advanced Anti-aircraft Rocket Systems

Hizbullah has been able to establish a military presence north and south of the Litani River and is already prepared to a large extent to fire rockets and missiles on Israel, an Israeli newspaper has reported.
Yediot Ahronot daily said Tuesday that security and intelligence chiefs are expected to present a discouraging assessment of the situation during the cabinet meeting Wednesday.

The report added that Hizbullah’s new military plan can effectively hinder the Israeli ground forces who would enter Lebanon to curb the missile fire.

Hizbullah’s rockets and missiles, estimated at 40,000, are found on both sides of the Litani, Yediot Ahronot revealed.

Yet, the heavy arsenal, the newspaper added, is made up of several hundred rockets with warheads weighing hundreds of kilograms and featuring a range of up to 250 kilometers (roughly 160 miles).

The arsenal is found underground north of the Litani and is well fortified in land bought by Hizbullah, the newspaper said.

In south Lebanon, the group established a fortified underground system that would be used to fight the IDF armored corps and infantry troops that advance towards the rocket arsenal north of the Litani. Meanwhile, the logistics and training center of Hizbullah, which has been boosted with thousands of new fighters, is in the Bekaa Valley region.

However, the most worrisome development to Israelis has to do with a new component that Hizbullah is attempting to set up with Syrian assistance.

The newspaper mentioned an anti-aircraft system that is aimed at limiting Israel’s ability to gather intelligence above Lebanon, and later make it more difficult for the Israeli Air Force to strike in Lebanon and Syria.

The Israeli daily warned that if Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah were able to establish a massive anti-aircraft system in Lebanon, this will fundamentally change the strategic balance of power.

This system, the newspaper pointed out, is supposed to provide aerial defense to the entire Syrian-Iranian rocket and missile arsenal in Lebanon and western Syria.

Yediot Ahronot said the message to Syria, which is also being conveyed via Wednesday’s cabinet meeting and through other means, some of them clandestine, is as follows: Israel would not accept the establishment of an advanced anti-aircraft system in Lebanon; should it be set up, Israel will not hesitate to act against it.

Israel is also warning Lebanon against granting Hizbullah the freedom to act, in light of the latest government decision in Beirut that in fact defines Hizbullah as part of the national army.

And the third issue: A warning to Hizbullah to refrain from carrying out acts of revenge for the killing of its top commander Imad Mughniyeh in a Damascus car bombing last February; Such acts would meet a “disproportional response.”

The Israeli government is attempting to convey all these messages at this time to Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and the international community, the daily said.

Israeli officials hope that exposing the Syria-Hizbullah intentions will deter Damascus and Tehran and stop them from implementing their plans in Lebanon.

Beirut, 06 Aug 08, 09:36