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Annan Assures Lebanon of Seriously Handling Alleged Border Violations of Israel
Visiting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan promised Tuesday to the leader of former Lebanese resistance Hezbollah that the United Nations will seriously deal with alleged border violations of Israel, Lebanon's People's Sound radio reported.
Annan held talks with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah Tuesday morning before he left Beirut for Amman, Jordan. He also stressed that the peacekeeping U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will be committed to settle such violations.
U.N. Security Council on Sunday announced to verify that Israel had ended its 22-year occupation in south Lebanon, despite Lebanese complaint that about 16 Lebanese areas along the border are still under Israeli control.
The Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, has announced that if such border violations are not solved soundly, it will choose "resistance as the best way". The Shiite Muslim group spearheaded a guerrilla war in the past two decades against the Israeli occupation in south Lebanon.
Annan said UNIFIL should cooperate with the Lebanese government and non-government organizations in offering aid to south Lebanon. He said an international meeting will be held soon to call for support of development and reconstruction in south Lebanon.
In his talks with Nasrallah, Annan also touched upon the problem of Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons, which he promised to address to the Israeli side during his visit there several days later.
At the airport, Annan told the press that UNIFIL will endeavor to re-establish authority for the Lebanese government and that its mission will conclude after that end is attained.
Annan said Monday afternoon that the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon will be reinforced by 1,000 troops in July and be redeployed in south Lebanon.
Lebanon issued a stark warning on Monday that no authorization would be given to UNIFIL to deploy to the border unless a full Israeli withdrawal was confirmed by the Lebanese border verification team.
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