U.N. Border Assessment Team: Smuggling Into Lebanon a Simple Matter

The United Nations Lebanon Independent Border Assessment Team has issued a report that supports Israeli allegations of arms smuggling into Lebanon. The team was created to investigate issues surrounding implementation of Resolution 1701, the document that ended last summer’s war between Israel and the Hizbullah in Lebanon. Above the signature of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the report concludes that peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon are "insufficient to prevent smuggling, in particular smuggling of arms, to any significant extent." The report supports Israel‘s contentions, saying that it is "possible for arms to be smuggled undetected through the border line." According to the report, the UNIFIL forces are not the proper mechanism for the task at hand. "The lookout points and checkpoints are spread out according to traditional military doctrine and their aim is to provide territorial defense, not check smuggling."