Last update - 00:00 16/09/2006
Syria seeks EU help in halting arms smuggling across border
By Reuters
Syria has approached several European Union states, including Germany, requesting help in putting a stop to arms smuggling across its border with Lebanon, German officials said on Friday.
"Syria approached several EU states - also Germany and me personally - with a request for advice and assistance for the border controls on the Syrian side," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
EU officials said in a statement that they would draw up a report listing possible ways in which the EU can bolster Syria's border security, as part of the existing United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at ending the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.
Syria and Iran are widely believed to be shipping arms and money to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah used Syrian and Iranian weapons during a 34 day war with Israel which ended on August 14 in accord with a UN-brokered cease fire agreement.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said last weekend that Europeans could train Syrian forces in an effort to clamp down on arms smuggling, but denied he had suggested Europeans might patrol the border.
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told a news briefing in Brussels that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana had been charged to follow up on the plan.
"The first aim is to technically support the Lebanese army but also on the basis of some opportunities registered by Prodi, to study the possibility of European assistance for the Syrians," D'Alema said.
D'Alema said Solana would work, particularly with the Germans, to create a European program that would then be presented to the United Nations. He noted that Germany had already agreed to provide personnel and technical support.