Original source URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060909/wl_nm/mideast_dc_449 Syria rejects EU border presence: media By Dominic Evans Sat Sep 9, 5:30 PM ET Syria said on Saturday it did not accept the deployment of European guards on the Lebanese side of the two countries' border to help prevent alleged arms shipments to Hizbollah. The official news agency SANA said "there is no truth to news reports of Syria's acceptance of European border guards to monitor the border from Lebanon." Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi earlier said Syria had agreed in principle to allow unarmed European Union personnel to patrol its border with Lebanon. Prodi had said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who last month warned deployment of international forces on the border would be a "hostile" move, had approved the idea. Prodi added he hoped it would be discussed by EU foreign ministers next week. Israel, which waged a 34-day war against Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, had called for an international presence on the Lebanon-Syria border to prevent arms smuggling as a condition for a full Israeli military withdrawal from Lebanon. Syria and Iran are widely believed to ship arms and money to the Hizbollah militia. "The EU has significant experience in training and deploying border guards so I expressed (to Assad) the idea of an EU mission to the frontier between Syria and Lebanon," Prodi said, adding that Assad "gave his firm agreement in principle." The EU personnel would be unarmed and would not wear uniforms, Prodi said, and would bolster 500 Syrian border guards that Assad has already committed. Prodi said Annan and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana backed the idea. Prodi's comments came shortly after more than 200 French military engineers arrived at Beirut port, the advance group of a battalion which will bolster a U.N. force set up to keep the peace between Israel and Hizbollah in south Lebanon. "They are the forward group of a French battalion which is due to arrive next week," said Alexander Ivanko, spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeepers. BUILDING UP U.N. FORCE Israel invaded south Lebanon and struck targets across the country after Hizbollah captured two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. It has gradually withdrawn forces since an August 14 cease-fire and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says it should complete the withdrawal once 5,000 U.N. troops reach south Lebanon. The French troops arriving on Saturday brought the total U.N. force to around 3,350, Ivanko said. Between 200 and 300 French logistics specialists and engineers disembarked at the port, offloading six armored carriers and 100 trucks. The U.N. force could reach 5,000 once the rest of the 700-strong French battalion arrive next week and an expected Spanish contingent of around 900 troops reach Lebanon, he added. But security sources say logistics problems, including painstaking demining operations in south Lebanon, could delay the actual deployment of the peacekeepers. Pakistan said on Saturday it would send troops to help clear mines and unexploded ordnance in the area. Under the U.N. Security Council resolution that halted the war, up to 15,000 U.N. troops are to join a similar number of Lebanese soldiers deploying in the south to secure a border zone free of any Israeli or armed Hizbollah presence. The French contingent arrived a day after Israel ended a two-month naval embargo which Lebanon said was hindering reconstruction of bridges, homes, roads and factories destroyed by Israeli bombardment. Israel lifted the blockade, which it said it imposed to prevent Hizbollah re-arming, after Italian, French and Greek naval forces arrived to patrol Lebanon's coast. Beirut port director Hassan Kraytem said four ships had arrived since the blockade was lifted, two container ships, and others with shipments of wheat and cars. "Today the situation was very good, work is back to normal," he said, adding he hoped the port could recoup some of the $10 million-a-month revenue which it lost since July 12. On Thursday, Israel lifted its air blockade of Lebanon, allowing commercial airliners to resume flights to Beirut airport which was bombed early in the conflict. (Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy, Lin Noueihed, and Khaled Yacoub Oweis) Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. -- -------------------------------------------------------- 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
