Syrian Foreign Minister meets Tuomioja in Helsinki

Syria sharply opposed to UN forces on its border

Walid al-Moallem

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"Syria will shoot itself in the foot", if it seeks to oppose the deployment of foreign troops on the between Syria and Lebanon, said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja after meeting with Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, who was in Helsinki on a brief visit on Wednesday.
      Tuomioja's comment is linked with Moallem's announcement that Syria will seal its frontier with Lebanon to all traffic if United Nations peacekeeping forces appear on its border.
      A border closure would actually be quite compatible with Resolution 1701, which has as one of its goals to prevent deliveries of weapons from Syria to the Hezbollah organisation. However, such a move would have a serious impact on life in Lebanon, a country which has a land border only with Israel and Syria.
      As Tuomioja sees it, carrying out the threat would lead to greater isolation for Syria.
     
The issue arose when Israel and France both called for deploying UN forces at the border. According to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israel will not stop its blockade of Lebanon before international troops arrive and monitor the border.
      Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview with Dubai Television that the arrival of foreign soldiers on the border would be a "violation of Lebanese sovereignty, and a hostile attitude".
     
With the exception of the border issue, Tuomioja said that the Syrian views expressed by Moallem were quite positive. Syria accepts Resolution 1701, the cease-fire, and what is most significant, it also accepts the demand contained in many UN draft resolutions that all of Lebanon's private armies, especially Hezbollah, should be disarmed.
      The endorsement of disarming Hezbollah seems hard to believe in the light of Syria's previous actions, and Tuomioja emphasised that Syria's upcoming actions would be followed closely.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Foreign Affairs Committee endorses sending peacekeepers to Lebanon (23.8.2006)
  It´s Finland´s war too (6.8.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat