UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council yesterday weighed a new pronouncement on the disarmament of militias in Lebanon, but Secretary-General Annan said he did not think such a statement would “add anything.”

French and American diplomats worked on the text of a new statement that they expected all of the council’s 15 members would approve, and that the council’s rotating president would then announce early next week, a council diplomat told The New York Sun, asking not to be identified by name.

Previously France has opposed implementing the part of council resolution 1559 that requires that militias be disarmed because the country sees Hezbollah as a political power that could be integrated into Lebanon’s civil society. The Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Siniora, has also expressed hesitancy on confronting the militias.

But a recent spate of assassinations in Lebanon, largely seen there as orchestrated by Syria through Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Syrian allies in the Palestinian Arab camps, has demonstrated to the French that the time has arrived to address the disarmament issue, the council diplomat said.

Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nassrallah, told Lebanon’s New TV in an interview yesterday that “American officials are issuing dictations in Lebanon, and the United States tutelage is destroying any agreement among the Lebanese,” according to the Syrian news agency. “Hezbollah is an ally to Syria,” he added.

In Damascus, President Ahmadinejad of Iran made a state visit to demonstrate Tehran’s alliance with President Assad. “Our relations with Syria are strong, brotherly, and lasting, and we will strengthen them during this visit,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said according to the French News Agency. “We reject any form of interference on the part of foreigners.”

“We have confirmed our support of stability in Lebanon and the need to back the resistance there as well to prevent the interference in the interior affaires of Lebanon and internationalization,” Mr. Assad said, according to the Syrian agency.

Mr. Annan yesterday called for caution. “I think we should do everything to dissuade those who would ship weapons into Lebanon,” he told reporters, but then added, “I am not sure if a [Security Council] presidential statement at this stage is going to add anything.” Saying that there has been “considerable progress” in implementing the resolutions on Lebanon, he added, “these resolutions are not implemented overnight.”

As the new U.N. investigator into last year’s assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, Serge Brammertz, arrived in Beirut yesterday, Mr. Annan said he has spoken with the Syrian foreign minister, Farouk Al-Sharaa, Tuesday, and was assured that “the government is going to cooperate and cooperate fully” with the investigation. Asked if Mr. al Assad’s brother in law, Assef Shawkat, is considered a suspect, Mr. Annan told The New York Sun, “He may well be,” but added that it will be up to Mr. Brammertz to determine an answer to the question.