Syria to check alleged soldiers crossing borders with Lebanon

Syria announced Tuesday to set up a joint Syrian-Lebanese committee to inspect reports over some Syrian soldiers crossing the borders in southern Bekaa valley, the official SANA news agency reported.

"An official source said that the general command of the army and armed forces has decided in coordination with the leadership of the Lebanese army to form a joint military committee that includes officers and topography experts to probe this issue," the agency said.

It said the announcement came in response to reports that a number of Syrian soldiers had crossed the Syrian-Lebanese border in the area of Deir al-Ashayier and the east of Kfar Kouk in the southern Bekaa valley.

An Arab satellite channel has shown footage of an old Syrian border post near a village in the Bekaa Valley and said Syrian troops were still present in Lebanon.

The post has been near the village of Deir al-Ashayier since before 1976 when Syria rushed troops into Lebanon to help end the 1975-1990 civil war.

Some Lebanese say it is about 300 meters inside Lebanon, others say it is in Syria.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nagib Mikati also said in an interview published Monday in the French newspaper Le Monde that the Syrian army still had soldiers "within Lebanese territory" in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

In a separate report, SANA said Mikati would visit Syria on Wednesday to discuss ways of strengthening fraternal relations between the two countries. Mikati was expected to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria said in late April that it has fully withdrawn its forces from Lebanon ahead of a planned deadline of April 30 in line with UN Security Council resolution 1559.

Syria began pulling out its 14,000 troops from Lebanon in March under mounting international pressure combined with mass Lebanese opposition which was triggered by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14.

Syria has been the main powerbroker in Lebanon since it first deployed troops there a year after the 1975 outbreak of the civil war, and further tightened its grip after the conflict ended in 1990.

Source: Xinhua