In an interview with the Hizbullah-run website al-Intiqad, Ali Abdul Karim Ali called on Leb to take "serious, strict measures to end arms smuggling from Leb into Syria and... not give in to international pressure."
His comments were made the same day the Higher Defense Council stressed during a meeting at Baabda palace the prevention of arms smuggling and said it asked security agencies to take stronger measures to fight terrorism.
Ali, the first Syrian ambassador to Leb, linked the issue of suspected arms smuggling to claims that al-Qaeda was operating along the Lebanese-Syrian border, made earlier this month by Leb's Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn.
"Ghosn's exposure of al-Qaeda members who are infiltrating Syria via the Lebanese border village of Arsal is an issue that must be dealt responsibly and seriously," Ali was quoted as saying.
"Arms smuggling and terrorism are complementary, and measures to put an end to this matter must be clear and decisive."
Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
blames the violence in his country on "armed terrorist" groups.
The Lebanese government has said it is investigating Ghosn's claims that a terrorist group was smuggling weapons into Syria through Arsal, which borders the Syrian protest hub of Homs.
The March 14
Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys...
-led opposition has meanwhile slammed Ghosn as a "minister for the defense of the Assad regime" over his statements.
Arsal, considered a stronghold of opposition leader and ex-Premier Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
, has in recent months witnessed a string of deadly incursions by the Syrian army in a bid to crack down on arms smuggling.
Wounded Syrian protesters have crossed the border into Arsal to seek medical care in Leb as violence escalates in Homs.