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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lieberman: Hizbullah, Lebanese Government Hampered Efforts to Reach Solution on Ghajar |
| 2010-11-08 |
| [An Nahar] Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday said Hizbullah and the Lebanese Government hampered efforts to reach a solution on the border town of Ghajar. "Israel decided to withdraw unilaterally from the village of Ghajar," Lieberman said. He accused Hizbullah and the Lebanese Government of "hampering efforts exerted by various parties, including Israel, to implement the decision." Lieberman noted during a meeting with his German counterpart that he "agrees" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the time has come to implement the decision through an agreement with the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society without waiting for the Leb Government. An Israeli official said that Netanyahu on Monday will present U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon with a plan to withdraw from the northern sector of the disputed border village of Ghajar. Details of the plan were not released, though Israel clearly would like assurances that Hizbullah won't be able to gain a foothold there from which to threaten cross-border attacks. An Israeli withdrawal could also set the stage for more tension between Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's political bloc and its Hizbullah rivals, who have extended their political influence in Hariri's shaky coalition government and maintain the country's strongest military arsenal. Hariri's allies would likely use the pullout to argue that Hizbullah no longer needs its weapons and that disputed land can be regained with the help of the international community instead. Hizbullah, which refuses to disarm, is already saying its military power would be to thank for any Israeli pullout. The political director of the U.N. force in Leb, Milos Strugar, said the force has been "actively engaged with both parties" in an effort to facilitate an Israeli withdrawal from the area. Ghajar sits on a strategic corner where the boundaries between Syria, Israel and Leb are in dispute. Israel captured the entire village of some 2,000 people from Syria in 1967. In 2000, after Israel withdrew its forces from south Leb, U.N. surveyors put the border in the middle of the village, leaving Israel in control of the southern half. Israel reoccupied the northern part in the 2006 war. After the fighting, Israel pledged to withdraw from that sector but gave no timeline for doing so. Ghajar's residents are members of Islam's Alawite sect, whose followers include many members of Syria's ruling elite. Most of the villagers have said in the past that they want the village to remain united, regardless of who controls it. Netanyahu plans to ask a group of Cabinet ministers to approve the withdrawal proposal after he returns from a U.S. trip late this week. It is not clear whether that means not all the details have been sewn up. Israeli officials have met several times with the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed in southern Leb to discuss a possible handover. A senior Lebanese army officer refused to comment on the possible withdrawal before the Lebanese government is formally informed by the U.N. of a plan. Hizbullah on Sunday positioned itself to claim victory for any pullout. "If the withdrawal happens, it (Israel) won't be doing it for free but because of fear of the resistance and Leb's strength through the resistance," Hizbullah NP Nawar Saheli told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named in Beirut. |
| Posted by:Fred |