Lebanon's control of Syria border still tenuous

WADI KHALED, Lebanon (Reuters) - Crossing back and forth from Lebanon into Syria is woven into the daily habits of Hassan Atiyeh and other residents of this remote border valley.

"If I don't go in the morning, I go in the evening," said Atiyeh, 27, a shopkeeper in the dirt-poor village of Knaisseh.

"Anything we have here is from Syria -- gas, diesel, bread. We can't live a moment without the Syrians."

Lebanon and Syria, which have never formally demarcated their frontier, agreed to work on this after forging diplomatic ties in October for the first time in their difficult history.

They have also agreed to cooperate on border security, a hot issue partly because Syria's foes complain that weapons supplies for Hezbollah -- which has re-armed since Israel's 2006 war with the Lebanese Shi'ite group -- still transit Syrian territory.

Lebanon is now tentatively seeking a better grip on its northern frontier with Syria, aided by Germany and other Western donors, but has not done much on its trickier eastern flank.

Little has changed for the 30,000 residents of Wadi Khaled, where 18 villages are sprinkled among sparse wheat fields and pasture in a northeastern pocket of Lebanon bulging into Syria.

"People are very poor. Some have cows, sheep or land, but otherwise there's no work," said Mohammed al-Hajjeh, who runs a small rock-crushing plant in Hnaider beside the shallow Kabir river that flows along Lebanon's northern boundary.

"The Lebanese army blocked the crossings here, but people open them again," he said, peering below his blue woollen cap at an earth barrier obstructing a dirt track to the river.

"The Syrian tractor trailers stop over there and the Lebanese trailers stop here and they transfer the goods."

But the 46-year-old father of 10 said times were hard even for smugglers, who once prospered by trafficking cheap Syrian diesel for sale in Beirut, Tripoli and elsewhere. Subsidy cuts in Syria and a newly introduced subsidy in Lebanon have eroded the price gap that made the trade lucrative.

Yet the lorries laden with Lebanese cement trundling slowly over potholed roads towards Syria, or parked in border villages, show illegal trade in another commodity is still thriving.

MANSIONS AMID POVERTY

And in sharp contrast to the mostly humble dwellings of Wadi Khaled, elaborate villas are also springing up, testifying to the fortunes made by the kingpins of the smuggling business.

"Some people profit, some don't," Hajjeh shrugged.

During Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon, which ended in 205, "no concept of border security...was ever implemented," a U.N. assessment team reported in 2007.

Lebanon launched a German-led pilot project to improve security on the northern border after the 2006 war with Israel.

That led to the formation of an 800-strong joint border force combining army, police, customs and intelligence men. Donors provided scanners, vehicles and communications kit.

This force has now established at least a minimal presence in Wadi Khaled and other points along the northern border.

"You can't go any further, beyond here it's Syria," said a soldier at a checkpoint on a lonely farm road near Hnaider.

An earth barricade thrown up by the joint border force blocks a former smuggling route across the Kabir river near a village just east of the official Arida border post.

Syrian security men stand on the opposite bank barely 100 metres away, at the edge of a scruffy village where plastic greenhouses lie among houses and pine trees.

"There is no coordination with the Syrians, we don't even say 'hi'," said one Lebanese army officer, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to journalists.

Syria has deployed extra forces of its own along its borders with Lebanon in recent months, saying it wants to curb smuggling and counter Islamist militants based there.

Lebanon's new president, interior minister, army commander and security chief have visited Damascus since the political deal defused a violent showdown among Lebanese factions, leading to formation of a national unity government in July.

It is not clear whether effective border cooperation will result. So far Lebanon has made only modest advances.

JUST AS PENETRABLE

"There are, at most, disconnected islands of progress, but there has been no decisive impact on overall border security," a follow-up U.N. assessment mission reported in August.

The report, endorsed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, urged the Beirut government to formulate a strategic plan to define its objectives for the border and how to achieve them.

Without this, donor support may weaken. Britain has already disengaged from a direct role in the northern border project. But Beirut's "unity" government is deeply divided.

A majority anti-Syrian coalition is uneasily yoked with Hezbollah and its allies, many of whom see no need for a major drive for border control or involvement of foreign forces.

"There are no problems between Lebanon and Syria in this regard," retired army general Abbas Nasrallah, a senior official in the pro-Syrian Shi'ite Amal movement, told Reuters.

The Lebanese army could police the border adequately, he argued, especially if it were given modern equipment such as helicopters, night-vision gear and electronic devices.

Hezbollah views international pressure on Lebanon to tighten its hold on the border as part of efforts to weaken it and protect Israel.

The U.N. Security Council Resolution ending the 2006 war called for all Lebanese factions to be disarmed but limited the mandate of U.N. peacekeepers to the south of the country.

"The international community missed an opportunity," wrote former Israeli diplomat Oded Eran for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "As a result, Hezbollah has more than doubled its pre-war arsenal of long- and short-range missiles and rockets by way of the porous Syrian-Lebanese border."

In Wadi Khaled, far from Hezbollah's likely arms supply routes, Sunni villagers say they ply the border out of daily necessity and natural ties with relatives in Syria. The same applies to many Shi'ite villages on the eastern frontier.

"Wadi Khaled is very close to Syria and we feel it is one region," said Aisha al-Khatib, 60, pointing out her Syrian daughter-in-law as the family drank tea outside their house.

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)