The Lebanese army moved on Friday into Bastara Farm, the only one of the occupied Shebaa Farms that the Israeli army evacuated when it pulled out of south Lebanon in 2000, an AFP correspondent said. Lebanese army vehicles and bulldozers could be seen moving for the first time into the farm, which lies some 300 metres (yards) away from other farms which Israel has occupied for more than 40 years. A road has been reconstructed to link this new position to other Lebanese army posts in the southeast of the country.The Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources measuring 25 square kilometres (10 square miles), are located at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel. Israel seized the Farms from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war when it captured the neighbouring Golan Heights which it later annexed. Ever since, the Farms have been caught in a tug-of-war over ownership. Lebanon claims them, with the backing of Damascus, while Israel says they are part of Syria.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during a visit to Beirut last month, called for an end to the standoff. "The United States believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue... in accordance with (UN Security Council Resolution) 1701," Rice said. Resolution 1701 brought an end to a devastating 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in summer 2006
And replaced it with a devastating peace, a UN specialty.
and called for the UN secretary general to propose a border demarcation for the Shebaa Farms.
Israel occupied south Lebanon for nearly 20 years until withdrawing its troops in May 2000, but it remained in the Shebaa. The United Nations ruled at the time that the withdrawal was complete and that the Farms were Syrian. A seven-point plan drawn up by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and adopted by the United Nations envisages placing the territory under UN administration while waiting for the three countries to resolve the issue.