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UNIFIL Not to Patrol Lebanon-Syria Frontier

The newly expanded UNIFIL force in Lebanon will not attempt to prevent arms smuggling into Lebanon, this according to the UN Secretary-General over the weekend. With the European Union agreeing to field roughly half of the supposedly more ?robust? force, and Israel objecting to the participation of Muslim countries that do not have relations with the Jewish state and do not recognize the right of it to exist, the jury is still out on whether or not UN Security Council Resolution 1701 will be fulfilled as it should be.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 not only calls for the prevention of Hizballah?s being re-armed by such nations as Iran and Syria, but also for the related disarmament of the group. The UN, which has often stood by wishy-washy as Hizballah conducted raids against northern Israel (but condemned Israel for taking actions to defend itself), says that border security should be left to the oft-proven-as-ineffective Lebanese Army.

During speculation last week that the UN might patrol the Lebanon-Syria frontier, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad threatened to close the border between the two countries. As the UN rushed to assure Assad that this would not happen, apparently the world forgot that, for the moment, closing the border is exactly what is needed to prevent arms from getting in. Hizballah has flat-out refused to disarm, and maintains that the Lebanese government and army are too weak to defend Lebanon.