Arms are still flowing across the Syrian border to Palestinian and other Lebanon groups, although Beirut is trying to assert its authority, a new UN report said on Wednesday.The report responds to UNSC resolution 1559 that called for Syria to withdraw all its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon and the disarmament of militias. This would include Palestinian groups and the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. But the report said that Lebanon has not yet been successful in disbanding and disarming all militias, despite discussions between Lebanese leaders and the Palestinian Authority.UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s new report to the Security Council, prepared by UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, also says that the Beirut government informed him that it had detained a number of infiltrators “of Palestinian origin who carried Syrian identification documents”. And the report says that Syria acknowledged that arms and people were being smuggled back and forth over the border. Annan also cited a variety of recent reports saying there was “an increasing influx of weaponry and personnel from Syria to some [militant] groups”.His The report is bound to put more pressure on Syria, the target of a US-French draft Security Council resolution threatening sanctions against Damascus if it does not cooperate fully with a UN investigation into the February 14 murder of Lebanon’s former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. Hours before the report was issued, Lebanese troops encircled military bases run by pro-Syrian Palestinian militants. The army set up checkpoints at Sultan Yacoub in the Bekaa Valley, where a Syrian-backed militant group runs a tunnel network dug into the hills, security sources said. —Reuters
