UN to check Syrian arms smuggling

The United Nations announced plans to investigate reports of arms smuggling across the Lebanon-Syrian border.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon informed the Security Council Thursday that a team of international experts would be dispatched to the region in accordance with a request by the council last month, AFP reported. Earlier this month, Ban warned that the alleged arms smuggling into Lebanon and the possible arming of various groups there might deepen the country’s political crisis. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended last summer’s Israel-Lebanon war, called for the prevention of arms smuggling operations in Lebanon.