UNIFIL turned back MP “as per agreement with LAF”
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) sought Sunday to explain why troops from the international body prevented a Lebanese politician from traveling in the direction of the Israeli-occupied village of Ghajar. UNIFIL troops on Friday turned back a convoy of five cars carrying Development and Liberation bloc MP Qassem Hashem at a checkpoint on a road leading to Ghajar, UNIFIL spokesperson Yasmina Bouziane told The Daily Star.
The move came in accordance with an agreement between UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which out of "security considerations," forbids civilian use of the road, she said.
The UNIFIL troops "were not informed of the visit or aware of the identity" of those traveling in the convoy, Bouziane added.
UNIFIL had been in contact with the LAF with a view to "avoiding any further incidents in the future," she said.
Israel occupied Ghajar in 1967 upon its capture of the Syrian Golan Heights. It withdrew from the village in 2000 when it pulled out of south Lebanon, but re-occupied it in July 2006 during a 34-day offensive against Lebanon. The Jewish state continues to occupy the Lebanese side of Ghajar north of the UN designated border demarcated in 2000, despite a December 2006 Israeli cabinet decision to hand it over to UNIFIL.
Israel has previously said that withdrawing from the territory would pose a security threat to the Jewish state and has accused Hizbullah of using the village as a base for espionage activities.
UNIFIL issued a proposal last year to facilitate Israel”s withdrawal from the Lebanese side of Ghajar and has engaged in separate bilateral negotiations in this regard.
In his ninth report on Resolution 1701, which established a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, UN chief Ban Ki-moon addressed efforts to negotiate a pullout from the village.
"As noted in my last report, the government of Lebanon had informed the [UNIFIL] force commander of its readiness to accept the UNIFIL proposal to facilitate the withdrawal of the Israeli [Army] from the area, on the condition that the government of Israel agreed to the proposal within three months and that a fate for the eventual Israeli withdrawal be established," he said.
UNIFIL was still talking to the Israeli authorities on the "modalities of the proposal," Bouziane said, noting that a date had still not been set for an eventual withdrawal. Ban had spoken to senior leaders from both Israel and Lebanon and "reiterated the urgent need to finding a solution to the matter," Bouziane added.
Also on Sunday, the National News Agency reported a spokesperson for the Lebanese Army Command as saying an Israeli reconnaissance plane had violated Lebanese air space. According to the source, the plane entered Lebanese air space early Saturday morning, flying over Southern Lebanon.