Lebanon complains to Syria over border violations

Lebanese soldiers on the  Lebanon-Syria border Lebanon's President Michel Sleiman tasked foreign minister Adnan Mansour Monday to deliver a letter of complaint to the Syrian ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdel-Karim, over repeated incursions along the Lebanese border, a step meant to precede filing a complaint to the UN Security Council, diplomatic sources revealed to Arabstoday.
Syrian authorities had also sent a few letters of complaint against what they claimed were cross-border attacks from Lebanese territory into Syria.
Sleiman expressed his displeasure over the border violation incident after a house in the Mashary al-Qaa area was bombed in addition to shells fired from Syria into villages along the northern border.
 Sleiman also asked the Lebanese army command and relevant security bodies to coordinate their investigations to avoid a recurrence of these violations “once and for all”, sources added.
 Last week, the Lebanese army deployed troops in north Lebanon as well as the northern and eastern border with Syria following the killing and wounded of several Lebanese citizens by gunfire as the Syrian army fought armed groups in the area.
 Lebanese military deployment is in line with the government decision to protect citizens from Syrian incursions.
On another matter, a  Lebanese national dialogue session set to be held on Tuesday, was postponed after the March 14 coalition announced it would boycott the all-party talks. The next session will now be held on August 16.
The decision to boycott the session was over failure to address Hezbollah’s weapons, withholding of telecom data from the security forces, and lifting political cover for wanted suspects.
 Sleiman Monday sent ex-Zahle MP and former defence minister Khalil Harawi, to brief former Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, head of the parliamentary Future bloc on Monday.
The brief covered the ministerial security meeting Sleiman chaired at Baabda Palace Saturday, which discussed the matter of handing over telecoms data to security bodies as demanded by March 14 parties.
Despite this briefing, no conclusion was reached and the boycott is set to continue.
A statement from Saniora’s office announced:  "In light of the information relayed by the presidential envoy, [former] Prime Minister Saniora had the impression that the mechanism for providing security apparatuses with telecoms data was unclear.”
Saniora also stated the importance of the data being available to security services without complications or barriers so they could “protect the country and confront terrorist operations.”
The March 14 coalition holds the government responsible for the attempted assassination of Batroun MP Butros Harb on July 5 and the attempted assassination of Lebanese Forces leader Samir Gaegea, as the government withheld telecoms data which would allow security to uncover such plots.