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Syria reopens border crossing with northeastern Lebanon |
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16:55, July 05, 2007 |
Syria reopened a border crossing with northeastern Lebanon after a two-week closure for security reasons, local Naharnet news website reported on Thursday.
The website quoted a senior Lebanese security official as saying that the Joussia-Qaa border crossing was reopened to traffic in both directions at about 2 p.m.(1100 GMT) on Wednesday.
The border post was closed on June 20, which Damascus said was a precautionary security measure and would stay in place "until calm has returned to northern Lebanon" where the Lebanese army has been locked in gun battles with militants of Fatah al-Islam.
In addition, Damascus also closed two other border posts at Arida and Dabussiya after the outbreak of the clashes in northern Lebanon on May 20 but kept in place the main Masnaa crossing on the Beirut-Damascus highway.
A full closure of Lebanon's border with Syria would sever Beirut's land links with the Arab world and could severely hurt its economy.
The anti-Syrian majority charges that the Fatah al-Islam gunmen fighting the army at the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared have links to Syrian intelligence, an allegation denied by Damascus.
Source: Xinhua
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