SULTAN YACOUB, Lebanon, 27 October 2005 — Lebanese troops and tanks encircled military bases run by pro-Syrian Palestinian militants near the border yesterday, hours ahead of a UN report set to accuse Damascus of arming guerrillas in Lebanon. The army set up checkpoints at Sultan Yacoub in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) runs a tunnel network dug into the hills, witnesses and security sources said.
Lebanese Army commandos and tanks also deployed in force along other parts of the remote border where suspected Palestinian gunmen shot dead a civilian army contractor on Tuesday, they said. UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen is due to send the Security Council his latest report to on the implementation of Resolution 1559, which demands all armed groups in Lebanon disarm and foreign troops withdraw.
The report would compound international pressure mounting on Syria since a UN probe last week implicated it in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February. Hariri’s son said yesterday that he opposes possible UN sanctions against neighboring Syria in connection with the killing. The comments from Saad Hariri came after the United States, France and Britain challenged the rest of the UN Security Council to adopt a tough resolution that would threaten sanctions if Damascus failed to cooperate fully with a UN investigation into the killing.
“No, I’m not for sanctions against Syria,” he told reporters after meeting with President Jacques Chirac in Paris. “I think the international community wants more cooperation from Syria for their investigation.” Chirac praised the “professionalism and impartiality” of the UN probe, led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, into the Feb. 14 killing, and expressed hope that justice would be done.
