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U.N.to Verify Israeli Pullout from Southern Lebanon
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) monitored the situation following reports that Israeli troops have pulled back from positions in southern Lebanon.
"Although the United Nations will still have to confirm Israeli withdrawal to its side of the border, as it intends to do in an expedited fashion, the U.N. peacekeepers have been patrolling vacated areas in an effort to maintain calm on the ground," U.N.spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
"UNIFIL has been maintaining contacts with the Lebanese and Israeli authorities, as well as with the leaders of the armed elements," Eckhard said.
"UNIFIL is helping the Lebanese Army collect heavy weapons that have been left behind all over the vacated areas," the spokesman said.
There had been no reports so far of revenge attacks and "We are very pleased that they have not occurred and we hope that they will not occur," he said.
"The United Nations still intends to take cartographers to the border area to identify the 1923 border on the ground, and then to mark a practical line so that it can then confirm Israel's withdrawal to its side of the border," he said.
"Cartographers will be deployed soon to the border, once necessary assurances are received that U.N. helicopters could fly over the border," said the spokesman.
He underscored that the "practical line", corresponding to the border, is not a demarcation of the border, and other elements, including the disbanding of the South Lebanon Army would also have to be verified.
Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid on Wednesday hailed Israel's just-completed withdrawal from south Lebanon as a great victory of the Lebanese resistance.
The Arab League chief called on the United Nations Security Council to follow up and verify Israel's withdrawal from Lebanese territories in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolutions 425 and 426.
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