UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Syria on Tuesday for tough talks with its president on two Lebanese issues - support for an international court to try the killers of Rafik Hariri and preventing arms smuggling to Hizbullah.
Syria, a major patron of Hizbullah, has up to now stood its ground on these points, but the government has pledged to cooperate with Ban Ki-moon, who began talks with President Bashar al-Assad shortly after his arrival. The state newspaper Tishrin said in an editorial Tuesday that Ban would find "a lot of common ground that can be built on."
Ban has warned that the smuggling of weapons across the Syrian-Lebanese border threatens the August 14 cease-fire that halted the fighting between Israel and Hizbullah. |