Original source URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/world/middleeast/02nations.html September 2, 2006 Syria Agrees to Lebanon Arms Embargo By WARREN HOGE DOHA, Qatar, Sept. 1 ‹ The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said Friday that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria had pledged to respect an embargo on weapons going into Lebanon and to help secure the border with added guards and a greater liaison with the Beirut authorities. Mr. Annan said his one-hour talk with Mr. Assad in the presidential palace in Damascus on Friday morning had also produced agreements to open bilateral negotiations on setting up formal diplomatic relations between Syria and Lebanon and on delineating their contested border. Syria is widely believed, along with Iran, to provide the Lebanese-based militia Hezbollah with money and weapons, and Mr. Annan was asked at an airport news conference in Damascus if he thought the steps he was announcing would succeed in blocking illegal arms shipments. ³I think it can happen,² he replied. ³It may not be 100 percent, but it will make quite a lot of difference if the government puts in place the measures the government has discussed with me.² A United Nations diplomat said the meeting in Damascus had given the world body new leverage in Syria, a country with which it has had difficult relations. ³The secretary general now has a precise understanding with Mr. Assad on what he is expected to do,² said the diplomat, who was not authorized to speak for attribution. ³He got what he wanted as concerning commitments. The test is, now, will Assad deliver.² Mr. Assad had no public comment on the meeting, but Walid al-Moallem, Syria¹s foreign minister, dismissed reports of arms shipments by Syria as ³something you read only in the Western media.² In an interview, he conceded only that there were incidents of ³smuggling.² Israel officials expressed skepticism on Friday that Syria would stop Hezbollah from rearming. ³Israel does not think that Syria during the last conflict ‹ both in helping Hezbollah by financing and arming them directly and the declarations during the conflict ‹ and in its aftermath, has shown any reason to be a reliable force,² said Miri Eisin, a government spokeswoman, Reuters reported. The pledges that Mr. Annan obtained are aimed at shoring up the independence of Lebanon, a country whose politics were long dominated by Syria and whose authority has been undermined by Hezbollah. The agreements track with the Aug. 11 Security Council resolution that brought a halt to the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Mr. Annan is in the midst of a Middle Eastern trip seeking support for putting the resolution¹s formula into practice. Since Monday, Mr. Annan has visited Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank and Syria. He arrived in Qatar late Friday and was scheduled to go Saturday to Iran, where he will meet Sunday with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Further stops include Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Mr. Annan said he had asked Syria to help win the release of three Israeli soldiers ‹ two captured by Hezbollah in a July 12 cross-border raid that set off the war, and one captured in June by Hamas-linked militants in Gaza. The exiled political leadership of Hamas is based in Damascus. The United Nations believes a plan under which prisoners on both sides would be freed would open the way toward broader agreements between Israel and Lebanon. Mr. Annan said he had encouraged Mr. Assad to meet with the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, who is backed by an anti-Syrian majority. The Syrian president told him he was ready to do that at any time. The arms embargo section of the United Nations resolution calls on countries to prevent the sale or supply of weapons to entities in Lebanon without the consent of the government or United Nations peacekeepers. It also calls for Lebanon to ³secure its borders and other entry points.² Another passage of the resolution calls for the dismantling of all foreign militias, a reference to Hezbollah. Mr. Annan said, without elaboration, that Mr. Assad had endorsed the Lebanese government¹s ³national dialogue² determination that armed militias be disbanded. Mr. Annan said Mr. Assad had committed Syria to establishing joint border patrols and control points with the Lebanese authorities. Mr. Siniora has stationed 8,600 troops along the border, and Germany has arranged to give the Lebanese training and equipment for scrutinizing cross-border shipments. Mr. Assad¹s reference signaled that he would not object to this outside assistance. Earlier, he had protested an Israeli suggestion that foreign troops under United Nations mandate assist the Lebanese in patrolling the Syrian border. Mr. Annan said that Mr. Assad had said he accepted the need to define the Syrian-Lebanese border in principle but had told him it was an issue to be worked out by the two countries. Syria has long argued that the neighbors do not need diplomatic ties because of their traditional links, prompting Lebanese suspicions that Damascus refuses to acknowledge as fully sovereign the country it controlled until it ended a 29-year troop presence last year. 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