UN Chief Concerned about Impact of Syrian Crisis on Lebanon

"I am deeply concerned by the impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon," Ban Ki-moon said in a report on Thursday.

"Largely as a result of the deteriorating situation in Syria, Lebanon has witnessed cross-border clashes and shelling," he added.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

Meantime, Iranian Ambassador to Syria Mohammad Reza Raouf Sheibani underlined that Iran plan can be an appropriate ground for any political move aiming to settle the Syrian crisis.

The Iranian envoy said that this plan needs consideration of all viewpoints in the Syrian political arena and abroad to turn into a comprehensive plan.

Sheibani said for settling the crisis, Iran believes in political solution and participation of different political and social trends in a national and all-inclusive dialogue and Tehran has prepared a proposal and has submitted it to international and regional bodies and countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

He said that copies of the proposal have been submitted to the UN special envoy in Syria affairs Lakhdar Brahimi and Syrian officials, and added that Iran's plan included stopping violence, starting ceasefire, and preventing the aliens' support for armed groups in the first stage.
mehr/281