The UN's Lebanon Independent Border Assessment Team arrived on Monday to evaluate reports of arms smuggling across the Syrian border in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The team was dispatched following the council's presidential statement of April 17, in which the council asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to send an independent group to assess border-security arrangements along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
The team is led by Lasse Christensen of Denmark and is composed of experts from Algeria, Germany, Jamaica and Switzerland. The team will work closely with the local authorities and will recommend measures and strategies to improve the situation. During its two-week mission, the team will meet army and security officials responsible for the border, and submit a report of its findings to the secretary general, said a UN source.
Ban said last week the team "will review the roles of relevant agencies, with particular attention to customs and border-monitoring capacities, as well as progress made by security and customs agencies in strengthening their control of the border.”Earlier this month, Ban warned in a report that the alleged arms smuggling and the possible arming of various groups in Lebanon might deepen the country's political crisis. Syria has repeatedly denied that weapons are making their way over the border into Lebanon.
Source : The Daily Star