UN worried about Syria's effect on Lebanon, civil war risk

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern on Monday that violence from the 14-month conflict in Syria could spread to neighboring Lebanon, and reiterated his fear that the Syrian violence may erupt into a full-scale civil war.   

In a readout of a meeting between Ban and new French President Francois Hollande on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Chicago, the U.N. press office wrote that Ban said the world was at "a pivotal moment in the search for a peaceful settlement to the crisis."   

Ban was "extremely troubled about the risk of an all-out civil war (in Syria) and was concerned about the outbreak of related violence in Lebanon," the U.N. statement said.   

At least two people were killed in heavy fighting between rival Sunni Muslim gunmen in Beirut on Monday, medical and security sources said, in the latest violence fueled by tensions over the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.   

Last week Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari sent a letter to Ban and the U.N. Security Council accusing some Lebanese factions of "incubating" al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood and helping them to take root along the Syrian border in order to launch attacks on Syria.   

He also accused Turkey and Libya of arming Syria's opposition, which forces loyal to Assad have tried unsuccessfully for over a year to crush, killing more than 10,000 people in the process, according to the United Nations.   

In comments that appeared to bolster Damascus' complaints about foreign militants, Ban said last week that he believed al Qaeda was responsible for two suicide car bombs that killed at least 55 people in Syria last week. But the U.N. later said that there was no hard evidence for the charge.   

Lebanon has had a complicated relationship with Syria, which continues to exercise some influence over its neighbor despite the 2005 departure of thousands of Syrian troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanese soil.   

The U.N. is deploying up to 300 unarmed military observers to monitor an agreed truce in Syria that has yet to take hold.   

Reuters