Lebanon is facing an "increasing influx of weaponry and personnel from Syria" to Palestinian militia groups, a UN report said on Wednesday.
The report, the second of two UN investigations into Syria's interference in Lebanon, said there had been a remarkable turnabout from Syria's long domination there. Damascus removed its troops last spring after 30 years of occupation following mass demonstrations and international pressure over the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Still, the report says, Lebanon has still not achieved "tangible results" in disarming the Palestinians and the Shiite Hezbollah militia or in exerting full control over its territory.
The situation remains "volatile," the report warned, citing "a number of worrying developments affecting the stability of Lebanon, particularly in the form of terrorist acts and the illegal transfer of arms and people across the borders into Lebanon."
While couched in diplomatic language, the report's clear implication that the Palestinian groups were acting at the behest of Syria appeared certain to increase pressure building against Damascus in the Security Council. The Council's special investigator issued a report last week saying the slaying of Hariri had been plotted by top-ranking Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officers, which included the powerful brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad.
Assad has denied that he or his aides had anything to do with the assassination. He sent a letter to France, Britain and the US early this week promising to prosecute any Syrian implicated by "concrete evidence."
As Wednesday's report was being released, Lebanese commandos backed by tanks were surrounding several Palestinian bases in the Bekaa region -- including one manned by a main Syrian-backed group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command -- and setting up roadblocks near the Syrian border.
A Lebanese officer said the military deployment was a tightening of security because of growing fears that the Palestinian militias were smuggling arms from Syria into the Bekaa.
"Things aren't like they used to be in that area, and they are a lot more sensitive and they need to be heavily guarded," the officer said.
Wednesday's report, compiled by the UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, noted that the Lebanese had detained and deported a number of infiltrators of Palestinian origin who carried Syrian identification documents. It said "Lebanon is witnessing a momentous transformation" since September last year, when the Security Council adopted Resolution 1559 calling for the Syrian withdrawal and the disarmament of armed groups.
But it also noted a series of assassinations and 14 bombings in the last year, for which Lebanese have widely blamed agents of Syria. "As a result of such acts, numerous Lebanese political leaders have chosen to spend long periods of time abroad, for fear of their lives," it said.
The report paid particular attention to the mounting tensions between the Lebanese government and the Damascus-backed Palestinian militias.
The leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, Ahmed Jibril, was named last week in the UNs inquiry into Hariri's killing in February. It said he was part of the group of Syrian and Lebanese officials who planned and executed the huge truck bomb explosion that killed the popular former prime minister-turned-opposition-figure and 22 others. Jibril's group acts on behalf of Syria.
The UN report noted that the front had issued a statement on Oct. 4 demonstrating its strong objection to the "insistence of certain sides of the Lebanese government" to "hastily enforce UN Resolution 1559."
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