Washington: Ghajar Pullout Strips Hizbullah of Pretext to Keep Arms
A U.S. official has said that Washington was urging Israel to withdraw from the border village of Ghajar and other controversial areas to strip Hizbullah of the excuse to keep its weapons.
The official told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in remarks published Saturday that the U.S. was "exerting diplomatic efforts to pressure Israel into pulling out" from the Lebanese side of Ghajar.
Meanwhile, the residents of the divided village on Friday protested over rumors that Israeli troops planned to withdraw from the northern part of Ghajar.
Village spokesman Najib Khatib told Agence France Presse by telephone that a vast majority of the 2,200 residents took part in the protest in Ghajar, which is closed to outsiders by Israeli forces.
"They will divide our people, cut families in two," the villagers chanted.
The northern part of Ghajar is in Lebanon and the rest in the Golan Heights which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by the international community.
Ghajar residents insist they have no connection with Lebanon. "We would be like refugees in Lebanon," Khatib said.
He said dividing the village would leave 1,700 people living in the Lebanese-controlled part and 500 on the Israeli-controlled side.