Lebanon arms smuggling worries Ban

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm over evidence of arms smuggling from Syria to Hezbollah.”Such transfers are alleged to be taking place on a regular basis,” Ban wrote in a report on Lebanon issued this week, referring to intelligence provided by Israel and other sources. “I am deeply worried that the political crisis in Lebanon might be deepened and exacerbated.”Ban called for the United Nations, which boosted a peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon following last year’s war between Hezbollah and Israel, to come up with proposals for monitoring the Lebanese-Syrian border.Ban’s report also criticized Israeli Air Force surveillance flights over Lebanon, which have continued since the war despite international objections.