Israeli Military Head Threatens To Renew Attack Against Lebanon, If
Lebanon Does Not Accede To Israeli Demands-
Thursday, January 20 9:13 PM SGT
Lebanon refuses to establish new borders with Israel
BEIRUT, Jan 20 (AFP) -
Lebanese Prime Minister Selim Hoss declared Thursday that Beirut flatly
refuses to draw a new border under any possible peace agreement with
Israel.
Hoss's statement, carried in an official press release, came in reaction
to reported remarks by Israeli Chief of Staff General Shaul Mofaz that a
peace deal between the two countries would mean a new border.
"The northern border (of Israel) will have a new demarcation to
guarantee maximum security," Mofaz said Wednesday in remarks published
Thursday in the Israeli press.
Mofaz also said that Israel would stipulate a "flexibility to retaliate"
against Lebanon should any agreement between the two countries be
violated.
He did not elaborate on either statement.
But in Lebanon, Hoss ruled out the possibility of a redrawn border.
"Lebanon's borders are internationally reconized and are not subject to
modifications or retracing under an eventual settlement with Israel," he
said.
The only exception, he added, would be to take in seven villages
"forcibly seized by Israel."
Israel has occupied part of southern Lebanon for almost 22 years.
Currently, the occupied zone covers some 850 square kilometers (340
square miles).
UN Security Council Resolution 425 of 1978 demanded that Israel withdraw
fully and without delay from Lebanese territory and set up an
intermediary armed body (UNIFIL) to help Lebanon deploy its armed forces
to the "internationally recornized border."
That mission has yet to be fulfilled, due not only to Israeli refusal
but to Lebanon's weak central government whose power ebbed during the
1970-90 civil war.
The 51-year-old armistice line between Lebanon and Israel largely traces
the borders fixed by the French and British in 1923, under their
respective mandates over Lebanon and Palestine.
The seven villages claimed by Lebanon were considered part of Palestine
under the British mandate, a situation recognized later by the UN.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed the partition of
Palestine, they were captured by Israel,
But the primarily Shiite residents, who retained close family ties in
Lebanon, obtained Lebanese nationality.
Similar sparring over border demarcations between Israel and Syria, the
main power-broker in Lebanon, has delayed their peace talks slated to
resume last Wednesday.
Damascus and Beirut agree that Lebanese-Israeli negotiations, broken off
since 1994, cannot resume unless substantial progress is made on the
Syrian track.
kf-sy-pm/bur/mb
Home | Asia | World | Business | Technology | Sport | Entertainment | Newspapers
Questions or Comments
Copyright © 2000 AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed
in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by
intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a
consequence you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish,
display or in any way commercially exploit any of the contents of this
section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
Copyright © 1994-2000 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=asia/headlines/000120/world/afp/Lebanon_refuses_to_establish_new_borders_with_Israel.html
|
