According to Naharnet, Syrian troops took up positions three km inside Lebanon. Michael Totten‘s reaction:
How could Syria invade three kilometers into any region of Lebanon without triggering a diplomatic and media storm?
So I emailed Michael Young, opinion page editor at Beirut’s Daily Star, and asked him if the story was nonsense. “It is true,” he said, “but the problem is that the 3 kilometers are in isolated areas, so that it isn’t making headlines. However, the UN will be discussing border issues this week, I think, and that will be brought up. The Syrians are ratcheting up the pressure, but with the attack against UN troops in the south, they are, as one UN official put it, playing with fire.”
If Israel sent the IDF three kilometers into Lebanon and started digging trenches and building bunkers it would make news all over the world. But Syria does it and everyone shrugs. Hardly anyone even knows it happened at all.
Is this incursion related to Damascus’ call on Syrian nationals to leave Lebanon within a week? Memri discusses two major Syria-Lebanon developments coming to a head next week–international monitors along the country’s border, and the submission of another UN report investigating the death of Rafik Hariri.
