Plumbly Shrugs off Call to Deploy UNIFIL on Lebanon’s Border with Syria
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly shrugged off on Tuesday a request by the March 14 opposition to deploy UNIFIL troops on Lebanon’s border with Syria.
“We were concerned by what is happening at the border. But our focus, my focus is very much on what we can do to help the Lebanese Armed Forces,” Plumbly said following talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail.
“We, with donors, have been helping over a period of years but we are looking now with more urgency at what we can do to help the security authorities here in Lebanon to control the border as it should be,” he said in response to a question on whether the U.N. has an intention to deploy UNIFIL troops along the border with Syria.
The March 14 alliance handed President Michel Suleiman a memo asking the Lebanese authorities to expel the Syrian ambassador and deploy UNIFIL troops on the border with Syria following repeated incursions and shelling of northern and eastern border regions.
On the recent deadly gunbattles in the northern city of Tripoli and the spate of kidnappings of Syrians and Turkish nationals in Lebanon and of Lebanese in Syria, the diplomat said: “We strongly hope that all those who have been kidnapped will be released without any further delay.”
“It is unacceptable that this situation should continue and people should be held in this way,” he added.
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