Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has expressed strong opposition to the deployment of U.N. troops along his country's border with Lebanon, saying such a move would be "hostile" to Syria and create problems between the two nations. "This negates the sovereignty of Lebanon," Al-Assad said in an interview Wednesday with Dubai TV. "No country in the world accepts having soldiers of another nationality patrolling its border." "They are taking sovereignty away from the Lebanese government and giving it to other forces while they talk about spreading that sovereignty," he said. "This is a hostile position towards Syria and will naturally create problems between Syria and Lebanon." Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said Wednesday he was told by his Syrian counterpart, Walid Al-Moualem, during a visit to Helsinki that Syria would close its border with Lebanon if the additional U.N. force is deployed there, according to a report of CNN.
