Original source URL: http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=10076 Israel wants international troops at Syria/Lebanon border By PAUL LUNGEN Staff Reporter Israel is calling for deployment of international troops at nine Lebanese border crossings where Hezbollah is attempting to smuggle truck-laden missiles from Syria, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last week. Miri Eisen said Israel has raised the issue of arms smuggling with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who visited the region last week. ³It¹s being discussed...We say to the United Nations and Kofi Annan that this issue is not being dealt with.² she said. In a telephone interview from Israel, Eisen laid out Israel¹s case that Hezbollah must be prevented from re-arming particularly through overland routes from Syria. Hezbollah has been repeatedly violating UN resolution 1701, which calls for its disarmament and which embargoes new weapons to the Lebanese group, she said. Because of the success of Israel¹s blockade of Lebanese ports and airfields, Hezbollah has turned to an overland route for arms replenishment. Eisen said Israel is concerned that Hezbollah is attempting to smuggle Katyusha missiles on trucks through the border crossings, as well as suitcase-sized anti-tank missiles. Iran is the source of the trucked missiles and Syria the anti-tank munitions, she said. The missiles are being shipped overland from Iran, through Turkey and Syria to Lebanon. Thousands of trucks enter Turkey from Iran each day, mostly bound for Europe, and Turkish authorities cannot search each one. Those destined for Lebanon then traverse Syria. ³Syria and Lebanon have a 330-km long border which has no fence,² she said. The trucks can enter Lebanon through any of the nine border crossings. ³We have evidence they are trying.² Eisen would not indicate if Israel was interdicting the shipments, saying, ³Israel reserves as always the right to self defense.² Eisen¹s comments came as Israel tried to draw international attention to Hezbollah¹s repeated attempts to rearm in violation of UN resolution 1701 and to Iran¹s and Syria¹s roles in providing munitions to the Islamic terrorist group. She said Israel¹s successful embargo on Lebanese ports and airfields will continue until international troops take over. She called for an international presence on the Lebanese border with Syria as well. Eisen noted that Israeli intelligence had learned that Syria provided Hezbollah with sophisticated Russian-made anti-tank missiles that were used extensively in the Lebanon war. ³The short-range anti-tank missiles had a devastating effect on the troops and it is difficult to give protection against it,² she said. ³They fired a couple of hundred anti-tank missiles and hit around 25 different targets.² (Globes Online, an Israeli business website, reported that 52 tanks were hit by Cornet, Concourse and Metis-M missiles. Of that number 22 were penetrated by missiles and 23 soldiers killed.) Eisen said the anti-tank missiles have been traced back to Syria. Cyrillic writing on some of the missiles indicate they originated in Russia and were supplied to Syrian forces. In a related development Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni asked the United Nations to adopt a resolution preventing Iran from arming Hezbollah. She also called on the international community to pressure Lebanon to release two Israeli soldiers, whose kidnapping triggered the month long war. -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Blogs: cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/ Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/ for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/ Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/ Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html
