Israel will offer to pull out of village
Source: Agencies |
November 8, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ISRAEL will present the United Nations with a plan to withdraw from the northern sector of a disputed village along the Lebanese border that it has occupied since its 2006 war with Hezbollah, an Israeli official said yesterday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won't present the proposal to UN chief Ban Ki-moon until today. Details of the plan were not released, though Israel clearly would like assurances that Hezbollah militants 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 Western-backed political bloc and its Hezbollah 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 Hezbollah no longer needs its weapons and that disputed land can be regained with the help of the international community instead. Hezbollah, which refuses to disarm, is already saying its military power would be to thank for any Israeli pullout.
Ghajar sits on a strategic corner where the boundaries between Syria, Israel and Lebanon 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 Lebanon, UN 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.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won't present the proposal to UN chief Ban Ki-moon until today. Details of the plan were not released, though Israel clearly would like assurances that Hezbollah militants 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 Western-backed political bloc and its Hezbollah 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 Hezbollah no longer needs its weapons and that disputed land can be regained with the help of the international community instead. Hezbollah, which refuses to disarm, is already saying its military power would be to thank for any Israeli pullout.
Ghajar sits on a strategic corner where the boundaries between Syria, Israel and Lebanon 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 Lebanon, UN 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.
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