Source: Daily Star, 8-12-2006
BEIRUT: The United Nations has been informed of "movements of arms" along the Lebanese-Syrian border but has not been able to verify the report, the French Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Hizbullah has been continually accused of continuing to receive arms via Syria in breach of UN Security Resolution 1701, which ended the July-August war with "Israel", but no evidence has been provided.
The French daily Le Monde on Thursday quoted a "senior UN figure" as saying there was "a constant and massive rearmament of Hizbullah." The UN headquarters in New York could not be reached for comment on the new allegations.
On December 1, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan released a letter citing "significant deficiencies" along the Lebanese border with Syria but said the Lebanese Army was taking initial steps to improve border security.
Annan`s letter "speaks of information concerning arms movements on the Syrian-Lebanese border," a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said. "But the report states that the UN has been unable to check the information."
A spokesman for Hizbullah denied the charges.
"They are attacking the image of Hizbullah and are always accusing Hizbullah of things which are false," a spokesman for the resistance movement told The Daily Star.
The accusations come after the Jerusalem Post published "Israeli" military sources accusing Hizbullah of receiving arms through Syria.
The spokesperson for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Milos Strugar, said Thursday that such claims could not come from within the UN peacekeeping force and that he could not speculate on who in the UN would have the authority to make such claims.
"UNIFIL operates between the Blue Line and the Litani," Strugar said, referring to the area of South Lebanon between the UN-demarcated de facto border between Lebanon and "Israel". "The charges are not related to UNIFIL as we have no information about the Syrian-Lebanese border."