Syria Threatens to Close Lebanese Border

Syria threatens to close the Lebanese border if the Rafik Hariri tribunal goes forward.

If the world community establishes an international court to try suspects for political assassinations in Lebanon, then Syria may close the border with Lebanon, a senior Syrian official said during a meeting with an Arab official in Damascus earlier this week.

According to a report printed in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, the Syrian official also warned that other measures to prevent the establishment of an international court may include "stopping the monitoring of the border with Iraq."

Also on Thursday, Arab League chief Amr Moussa met with Syria's foreign minister to seek Syrian help to end the long-running political crisis in neighboring Lebanon.

This comes on the heels of an ABC News report claiming that videotape shows that Syrian officials were behind an attack on the US embassy in Damascus. Dan Riehl comments on the way the Syrians acted both before and after the attack occurred.

Meanwhile, the IDF believes that Hizbullah has almost recovered fully from the August conflict. That can only have happened if the Syrians were keeping the flow of weapons into Lebanon wide open.

That's why Syrian talk about the border is silly. They control the flow of materials across the border, and know that the Lebanese and UNIFIL cannot control the porous border. That is, when the Lebanese and UNIFIL forces are actually patrolling the border and looking to stop Hizbullah from rearming despite the fact that Hizbullah is supposed to be disarmed under UN SCR 1701.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has more commentary on the video of the incident in front of the US Embassy in Damascus. The two competing theories is that a terror cell infiltrated one of the most secure areas of Damascus, while the other theory is that the Syrian authorities were complicit. Given the way the Syrians have taken to assassinations and violence in Lebanon, I'd lean towards the latter.