By Patrick Galey BEIRUT: Syria is showing “flagrant disregard” for Lebanon’s sovereignty and flouting international law by continuing to provide weapons to Hizbullah, Washington’s Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Thursday. “Syria especially has displayed flagrant disregard for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence of Lebanon,” Rice told reporters as the members of the UN Security Council discussed Lebanon in a closed-door session in New York.
She added that Damascus “continues to provide increasingly sophisticated weapons to Lebanese militias, including Hizbullah, despite [UN Security Council] Resolution 1680, which calls on Syria to undertake measures against the movement of arms into Lebanese territory.”
Rice’s comments, delivered on behalf of President Barack Obama’s administration, came amid intense scrutiny over what several pockets of the Lebanese political scene consider increasing Syrian influence in domestic affairs.
Last week saw the release of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s interim report on Security Council Resolution 1559, which aims at boosting Lebanon’s independence, in which he warned that poor border demarcation made it easy for arms embargoes to be breached across the countries’ porous frontier.
The US envoy said Hizbullah represented the “most significant and most heavily armed Lebanese militia,” and added that the party could not have rearmed in the wake of its 2006 July war with Israel – to the tune, several media reports claim, of 40,000 warheads – without extensive assistance from regional supporters.
Hizbullah’s arsenal would be significantly smaller “if not for Syria’s aid and the facilitation of Syrian and Iranian arms, which also violates UN Security Council Resolution 1747,” Rice said.
“We continue to have deep concerns about Hizbullah’s destructive and destabilizing influence in the region, as well as the attempts by other foreign players, including Syria and Iran, to undermine Lebanon’s independence and endanger its stability,” she added.
Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar Jaafari dismissed Rice’s allegations about Syria facilitating arms smuggling into Lebanon. He also criticized Ban’s latest report on Lebanon for saying UN peacekeepers there cannot verify that no new arms are flowing into southern Lebanon. “What Ambassador Rice said is … in full contradiction with a lot of facts related to the positive developments within Lebanon as well as within the whole area,” he said. “Ambassador Rice gave credibility to wrong facts.”
Rice said that Hizbullah, Syria and Iran “believe that escalating sectarian tensions will help them assert their own authority over Lebanon. However, these actors serve only to destabilize Lebanon and the region.”
Rice said that Hizbullah, Syria and Iran “believe that escalating sectarian tensions will help them assert their own authority over Lebanon. However, these actors serve only to destabilize Lebanon and the region.”
Several international envoys told the Security Council last week that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) needed to continue its course free from foreign intervention and members discussed Thursday the situation in Lebanon a day after court investigators were accosted by members of the public at a south Beirut gynecology clinic.
The court has been subject to fierce political debate and there are fears that civil strife may follow anticipated indictments, reportedly set to feature Hizbullah members. As the dispute over STL “false witnesses” rumbles on, Syria issued 33 arrest warrants against senior Lebanese officials, lawmakers and journalists, as well as foreign nationals close to UN investigations, an act which Rice said “directly undermines Lebanon’s sovereignty as well as Syria’s stated commitment to respect Lebanon’s independence.”
Successive Security Council resolutions have called for the disarmament of Hizbullah in spite of the party’s insistence that its weapons are not up for discussion during repeatedly delayed National Dialogue sessions.
Washington classes Hizbullah as a terrorist organization and Rice warned that the party was seeking to exercise control over parts of the country. “Hizbullah itself is not accountable to Lebanon’s democratic institutions,” she said.
“The United States urges all friends and neighbors of Lebanon to play a constructive role in supporting the Lebanese government in good faith,” Rice added. “We remain firmly committed to a sovereign, stable and independent Lebanon, with strong Lebanese institutions. This is the only way to secure the best interests of the Lebanese people and the region as a whole.”
A UN special envoy on Lebanon, Norwegian diplomat Terje Roed-Larsen, told reporters that “if the Lebanese situation is destabilized I am afraid it will have rippling effects across the region.”
“This is the most critical issue of international peace and security today,” he said, adding that all parties in the region should “stop all irresponsible and reckless rhetoric.”
“Lebanon is more conflicted every day,” Roed-Larsen said, adding that the combination of armed militias and inflammatory rhetoric created a “hyper-dangerous situation.” – WithReuters
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