BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese Prime
Minister Saad al-Hariri asked the United Nations on Friday to help
Lebanon and Israel move towards a permanent ceasefire and end what he
called Israel’s “continuous violations” of Lebanese territory. Israel
and Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah group fought a month-long war in 2006
that concluded with a cessation of hostilities but without a formal
peace deal. “I urge the U.N. secretary general to
support efforts to secure, as soon as possible, a state of permanent
ceasefire. This is long overdue and my government is committed to move
this agenda forward,” Hariri said. Hariri was speaking
on a visit to south Lebanon a day after Hezbollah officials staged a
media tour near the same area to view what they said were recent Israeli
fortifications on the border and to state their preparedness in c
The tour drew a response from
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, who said in a
Facebook post that Hezbollah’s media tour was to “shake their sabres
and pound their chests”. Under U.N. resolution 1701,
which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese army
is responsible for security on its side of the border in a zone from
which any other armed force, including Hezbollah, is banned. The United Nations also maintains a peacekeeping force on the border. Resolution
1701 also required Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory. Lebanon
says that Israel has not fulfilled this because it continues to occupy a
disputed area known in Lebanon as the Shebaa Farms. (Reporting By Angus McDowall and Ellen Francis; Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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more at
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ase of
any new war.
