'Deluge of Booby-Trapped Suitcases' Cited for Syria's Trade War

The Assad regime has given conflicting alibis for the trade blockade it clamped against Lebanon to avenge the humiliating downfall of Syria's political and military tutelage, with the interior minister citing a deluge of contraband booby-trapped suitcases and the customs chief claiming a rehabilitation of border passes, An Nahar reported Monday. "The border restrictions have been enforced after receiving information of attempts to smuggle hundreds of booby-trapped suitcases to Syria from Lebanon," Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan was quoted by Egypt's official new agency MENA as saying in Qatar's capital Doha Sunday, An Nahar said. But the head of Syria's customs department, Dr. Bassel Sandouka, said in a statement released in Damascus that an "ambitious plan" was underway to rehabilitate Syria's border passageways with all neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. Irrespective of the authenticity of either alibi, long convoys of cargo trucks remained stranded at Lebanese-Syrian border crossings, some for more than three straight weeks, imperiling Lebanon's transit trade with the Arab world and closing the Syrian markets for Lebanese industrial and agricultural products. Lebanese pleas to President Assad to intervene to stop the obviously deliberate punitive measure have fallen on deaf ears. Beirut media reports said Monday Premier-Designate Fouad Seniora would travel to Damascus to try to resolve the crisis if and when his government gets a vote of confidence from the Lebanese parliament.