Beirut |
July 25, 2007
Two Years After Withdrawal, Syria Still in Lebanon
July 25, 2007
Two years after it was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, Syria still occupies at least 177 square miles (458.4 square kilometers) of Lebanese soil and smuggles arms to militants, according to a recent survey.
The report, published by The Wall Street Journal, comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border produced by the International Lebanese Committee for U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the U.N.
Because of the sensitivity of the subject, the authors have requested anonymity and have circulated the report only among select government officials and journalists, the daily said.
Surveyors scrutinized the central and northern two-thirds of the 227-mile border between Lebanon and Syria, according to the report. It said the southern portion, patrolled by the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) under a cease-fire agreement that ended last summer's war between Israel and Hizbullah, was not surveyed.
The report, accompanied by maps and pictures taken by satellites, concludes that Syria maintains army camps in Lebanon, along with "dozens of smuggling passages" used to "infiltrate foreign fighters and weapons."
It says that Palestinian militants and members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard allied with Syria remain on Lebanese soil.
Surveyors said Syrian barriers are visible at the Maaraboun area some 2.59 square kilometers deep into Lebanese territories.
Pictures also confirm Syrian anti-aircraft batteries are visible at Wadi Brak.
On the outskirts of Qoussaya, the report uncovered that the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, headed by Ahmed Jibril, maintained a militia camp there in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and Lebanese government requests.
USA Today, a national American newspaper, quoted Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer in Lebanon and Middle East specialist on the White House National Security Council, as saying that the findings "look very credible to me. The areas indicated on the border have long been in de facto Syrian control."
Augustus Richard Norton, a Middle East expert at Boston University and author of Hizbullah, a new book on the Shiite group, said the report appeared "credible to a considerable extent, bearing in mind that much of the border has been disputed since Lebanon's independence" in 1943.
A U.N. commission investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and related crimes has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian security officials.
Syria denied involvement in Hariri's 2005 killing, but was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending its 29-year domination of it smaller neighbor.
Two years after it was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, Syria still occupies at least 177 square miles (458.4 square kilometers) of Lebanese soil and smuggles arms to militants, according to a recent survey.
The report, published by The Wall Street Journal, comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border produced by the International Lebanese Committee for U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the U.N.
Because of the sensitivity of the subject, the authors have requested anonymity and have circulated the report only among select government officials and journalists, the daily said.
Surveyors scrutinized the central and northern two-thirds of the 227-mile border between Lebanon and Syria, according to the report. It said the southern portion, patrolled by the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) under a cease-fire agreement that ended last summer's war between Israel and Hizbullah, was not surveyed.
The report, accompanied by maps and pictures taken by satellites, concludes that Syria maintains army camps in Lebanon, along with "dozens of smuggling passages" used to "infiltrate foreign fighters and weapons."
It says that Palestinian militants and members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard allied with Syria remain on Lebanese soil.
Surveyors said Syrian barriers are visible at the Maaraboun area some 2.59 square kilometers deep into Lebanese territories.
Pictures also confirm Syrian anti-aircraft batteries are visible at Wadi Brak.
On the outskirts of Qoussaya, the report uncovered that the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, headed by Ahmed Jibril, maintained a militia camp there in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and Lebanese government requests.
USA Today, a national American newspaper, quoted Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer in Lebanon and Middle East specialist on the White House National Security Council, as saying that the findings "look very credible to me. The areas indicated on the border have long been in de facto Syrian control."
Augustus Richard Norton, a Middle East expert at Boston University and author of Hizbullah, a new book on the Shiite group, said the report appeared "credible to a considerable extent, bearing in mind that much of the border has been disputed since Lebanon's independence" in 1943.
A U.N. commission investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and related crimes has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian security officials.
Syria denied involvement in Hariri's 2005 killing, but was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending its 29-year domination of it smaller neighbor.
