Syria deploys new troops along Lebanese borders

RPS Notes: This happened after Saloukh, Lebanon's foreign minister and a Hezbollah ally, who accompanied president of Lebanon Michel Suleiman on his Washington trip, leaked the whole transcript of the meeting, to the Syrians, including what Bush told Suleiman that sanctions against Syria will be removed.

Syria deploys new troops along Lebanese borders
October 7, 2008 //Xinhua// -- New Syrian troops buildup was reported Tuesday near Lebanon's northern borders, with tanks deployed along the frontiers of the northern Bekaa valley, the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reported Tuesday.

Witnesses were quoted as saying that Syria deployed vanguards along the borders on Monday noon, and trenches were set up with tents for the soldiers.

Syrian forces were setting up checkpoints along the area of deployment, and the entire crossing that links the Syrian city of Homs with the Bekaa valley had been placed under Syrian control, the report said.

Security sources said that no Syrian penetration into Lebanese territories took place since the first troops buildup of about 10,000 soldiers along the northern borders on Sept. 21.

Earlier last week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Lebanese President Michel Suleiman over telephone that the troops buildup is one of Syria's measures to counter smuggling.

He also confirmed that the decision was taken in "harmony" with UN resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah in 2006.

However, Syrian troops buildup raised a number of international warnings against any attempt to intervene in Lebanon again.

The Syrian army pulled out of Lebanon in 2005 after 29 years of military presence.
NEWS

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