Meqdad Says FSA Ready to Withdraw to Syria if Lebanese Army Controls Border

The Free Syrian Army's Political and Media Coordinator, Louay Meqdad, said on Sunday that rebels are ready to cease fire and withdraw into Syrian territories if the Lebanese army guarantees that it will control the border with the neighboring country.

“The FSA is ready to draw back on condition that the Lebanese army controls the joint border with Syria,” Meqdad said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper.

The FSA official considered that Syria's foreign ministry's letter to Lebanese authorities and Syrian army reinforcements to military bases on the border with Lebanon is to retaliate a French decision to arm the rebels.

On Thursday, Syria warned that its forces would fire into Lebanon if "terrorist gangs" continued to infiltrate the country.

London and Paris have shaken up EU diplomacy on Syria by pushing for the across-the-board arms embargo to be changed in order to arm the Syrian rebels, a bid to tip the balance in their favor in the two-year-old uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime.

President Michel Suleiman said on Saturday that Lebanese armed forces must prevent the infiltration of fighters across the border with Syria, and that he has given instructions to them to arrest militants.

Cabinet sources told the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that Lebanon will hand over its reply to the Syrian letter to Damascus embassy in Beirut according to norms.

Beirut has officially pledged neutrality in the violence engulfing its neighbor.

Official Lebanese sources downplayed the Syrian threats, ruling out that the Syrian army would cross the border as the international community would adopt a stricter stance against the Syrian regime.

Meqdad pointed out that Hizbullah member Hassan Nimr Shartouni died in clashes in Damascus on Saturday.

The FSA had continuously warned Hizbullah of a “severe and earthshaking retaliation,” after the Syrian opposition said Tuesday that a Hizbullah commander and several fighters were killed inside Syria.

Lebanon's March 14 opposition backs the revolt, which entered its third year on Friday, while Hizbullah and its allies stand by the regime.

Violence has already spilled over into Lebanon on several occasions, causing fatalities on the Lebanese side, and on Thursday the U.N. Security Council expressed "grave concern" about cross-border attacks.