BEIRUT: Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad said Sunday the government should take all necessary measures to prevent arms smuggling into Syria, adding that the neutral policy adopted by Prime Minister Najib Mikati is not sufficient.
“It is no longer enough for the government to steer clear of the developments and complications in Syria,” Fayyad said during a ceremony to launch a reforestation project in Marjeyoun, south Lebanon.
“It is now necessary to take measures that would prevent Lebanon's northern borders from becoming a main passage for arming the Syrian street,” he added.
The Hezbollah MP also said that reports regarding arms smuggling into Syria were cause for alarm.
“Such news, if true, is extremely dangerous and contradicts the government's position. The government must now act decisively ... to put an end to this chaos, which is having serious and negative repercussions on both Lebanon and Syria,” Fayyad said.
Damascus has repeatedly asked Lebanon to prevent arms smuggling on the poorly demarcated border between the two countries, as Syrian authorities maintain that violence in their country is carried out by “armed gangs.”
The U.N.’s most recent report on the matter estimates that over 5,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria since the uprising, while Damascus claims that more that, 2,000 of its army and security personnel have been killed.
Lebanon has adopted a policy of dissociating itself from events in the Arab world and particularly in neighboring Syria, with top officials saying that Lebanon is the country most affected by what is happening in Syria.
In late December, the Higher Defense council pledged to tighten security and prevent arms smuggling across its borders, after Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn alleged that Al-Qaeda members were entering the Bekaa border town of Arsal under the guise of Syrian opposition activists.
The Lebanese-Syrian border has become increasingly tense following several incursions by the Syrian army into Lebanese towns, the killing of Lebanese citizens by Syrian forces, and the recent attack by the Syrian navy on a Lebanese fishing trawler, during which the Syrians fired in the general direction of the fishing boat, killing one man, and proceeded to kidnap the two other fishermen before releasing them.