Friday 20 March 2009

Syria to Ban: Stop Larsen's Meddling in Syrian-Lebanese Ties


Syria to Ban: Stop Larsen's Meddling in Syrian-Lebanese Ties


20/03/2009 Syria asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to prevent his special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen from interfering in Damascus' relations with Lebanon and stick to his mandate, Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar said on Friday.

According to the Lebanese daily, Syria's ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari delivered an official letter to Ban accusing his special envoy for the implementation of Security Council resolution 1559 of "misinterpreting the logical framework of his mandate."

The daily also noted that the letter objected to expanding Roed-Larsen's mandate to include implementation of some articles of resolutions 1701 and 1680. Al-Jaafari complained that expanding the mandate to include some articles of resolution 1701 would lead to duplicity because another envoy is tasked with implementing the resolution that ended Israeli war against Lebanon in July 2006.

"The establishment of diplomatic ties and demarcation of the border between Syria and Lebanon are issues linked to the sovereignty of countries and are solved through agreement between the Syrian and Lebanese governments," the letter reportedly read. It said Resolution 1680 does not call for any help by the UN general-secretariat to help in efforts to improve Lebanese-Syrian ties.

The letter, according to al-Akhbar's report, also accused Roed-Larsen of disregarding the Zionist entity's continued violations of Lebanese airspace and occupation of parts of southern Lebanon, in violation of resolution 1559 which calls upon Lebanon to establish its sovereignty over all of its territory and urges "foreign forces" to withdraw from Lebanon.

Al-Jaafari said in his letter that Syria has implemented all articles of resolution 1559, by withdrawing its armed forces and security apparatuses from Lebanon in April 2005. "The continued efforts to hurl the name of the Syrian Arab Republic in unacceptable explanations … hurts the neutrality of international employees tasked with implementing resolution 1559," he concluded.

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