Alwaght-According to Nahar website, Syria's ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdul Karim Ali on Thursday criticized “those obstructing cooperation" between Lebanon and Syria, particularly after militants stormed the northeastern border town of Arsal. Syria and Lebanon “are two countries with shared geography and one people and there is one enemy lurking both nations,” Ali said in an interview on al-Manar television.
"Cooperation is a must between the people and the armies of both countries and everyone should eliminate any obstructions that halt such a cooperation to avoid losses”, he stressed. If agreements concluded between both states were implemented, Lebanon would have been saved from the dangers haunting Arsal and the cities of Akkar and Tripoli in the North, Ali added, noting that the latest developments in the Bekaa region “were planned and not related to the arrest of (Imad Ahmed) Jomaa”.
"It is in Lebanon's interest not to divert from this path in confronting dangers,” he warned. Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq had declared on Wednesday that the Lebanese cabinet refuses to cooperate with Syria's armed forces on the Arsal clashes, explaining that Lebanon “will not position itself against the entire Syrian opposition.”
Commenting on March 14's call for deploying international peacekeeping troops on the Lebanese-Syrian border, according to the stipulations of U.N. Security Council's resolution 1701, Ali said this should be implemented at the border with Israel only. "This serves the enemy lurking Lebanon, Syria and the region. It serves Israel,” he considered.
Foreign militants invaded Arsal on Saturday upon the arrest of Jomaa, a member of the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front. Since then, clashes erupted between the gunmen and army troops, resulting in the martyrdom of scores of soldiers and the injury of over 80 others.
