Syria will close Lebanon borders if UN troops are deployed
Syria has threatened to close its border with Lebanon if UN peacekeepers are deployed along the border, Finland’s foreign minister said today.
“They will close their borders for all traffic if UN troops are deployed along the Lebanon-Syria border,” Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said after meeting his Syrian counterpart, Walid Moallem, in Helsinki. Finland holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
“This closing of the border would certainly have negative consequences for the people living in the region,” Tuomioja told reporters after his meeting with Moallem. The Syrian foreign minister was not present at the news conference.
In an interview with Dubai Television, Syria’s President Bashar Assad rejected any deployment of UN troops along the Syrian border with Lebanon, saying such a move would create animosity between the two countries.
Tuomioja described EU-Syria relations as “quite cool and distant”.
“They wish to see better relations with the EU,” he said. “From our side, we made it clear what the EU expects from Syria, and that we will be watching them.”
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