"Nobody knows what's inside these trucks," Jumblatt told Al-Jazeera A senior Lebanese politician has said that Lebanese security agents are helping Hizbullah smuggle weapons across the country's border with Syria. Walid Jumblatt, longtime leader of Lebanon's Druze community and a member of the ruling parliamentary bloc, said some Lebanese agents are allowing trucks to cross the border without being searched. "Nobody knows what's inside these trucks," Jumblatt told Al-Jazeera in an interview broadcast on Saturday. He also said that the Lebanese army has a policy of not entering Hizbullah training camps along the Syrian-Lebanese boundary to search for weapons. Calling Hizbullah "a state within a state," Jumblatt said the terrorist organization had security units running in parallel with those of Lebanon's government. "There is a Hizbullah army alongside the Lebanese army," he said. "There is Hizbullah intelligence alongside Lebanese [army] intelligence and there are Lebanese territories that the army is prohibited from entering… The Lebanese army should have... entered the areas between Lebanon and Syria that are off-limits." Mahmoud Komati, the deputy leader of Hizbullah's political bureau, said Jumblatt's accusations are "part of the conspiracy against the resistance." Hizbullah, which leads the political opposition in Lebanon, is locked in a bitter power struggle with the government of Fuad Siniora. Jumblatt's comments come after France circulated a draft United Nations Security Council statement last week, expressing "serious concern" at reports of illegal arms transfers across the Lebanon-Syria border. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned during a visit to Lebanon last Saturday that arms smuggling from Syria could threaten the ceasefire in Lebanon. He urged full compliance with U.N. resolution 1701 that ended the 34-day Israeli-Hizbullah war. "There are intelligence reports that arms are smuggled. I am concerned by that kind of arms smuggling, which will destabilize the situation in Lebanon," he said. Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported that Ban told Lebanese security chiefs that Israel had provided him with "evidence and pictures" of trucks crossing from Syria to Lebanon and unloading weapons. Ban expressed the need for "an enhanced monitoring capacity of the Lebanese armed forces to ensure that there will be no such smuggling activity," and later added that "full compliance of 1701 is crucially important in maintaining peace and security there." In the French draft, the Security Council would express "its serious concern at mounting reports of illegal movements of arms across the Lebanese-Syrian border in violation of resolution 1701." When the council receives recommendations from the secretary-general, the draft says it will "take further concrete steps to achieve the goals" of banning the sale or transfer of arms or technical assistance to any entity or individual not authorized by the Lebanese government. The council would also reiterate "its deep concern at the continuing Israeli violations of Lebanese air space."
