LEBANON/VARIOUS: Israel prepares to lift air and sea blockade of Lebanon

Lebanon was set to emerge on Thursday (September 7) from a costly eight-week Israeli blockade of its airport and territorial waters, which German advisers and U.N. naval forces will now help the Lebanese authorities to monitor. Israel had vowed to maintain the embargo until measures were in place to stop Hizbollah getting more arms from Syria or Iran. It said on Wednesday (September 6) it had decided to lift the blockade at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Thursday, after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. chief Kofi Annan told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "international forces are ready to take over control posts over the sea ports and airports of Lebanon". "This lifting of the blockade is the naval and the one for the airport. This does not resolve the issue of the land border between Syria and Lebanon, 330 kilometres long, we do not know yet how it would be supervised. Israel has requested international troops. We are still waiting to see how that land border will be supervised, how they will implement the embargo against the arrival of weapons to Hizbollah through that land border," Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said on Thursday morning. Benny Regev, brother of one of the kidnapped soldiers, Eldad Regev, told Reuters he was unhappy with the decision. "We are afraid that lifting the blockade over Lebanon will lead to Hizbollah transferring Eldad and Udi to other countries hostile to Israel and that will make their release much harder. We expect the government to do whatever it can to bring about their release and we are losing a significant tool that could have pressured the Lebanese government to bring about the release of the kidnapped soldiers," said Benny Regev from Ramat Gan. Lebanon has not agreed to any international monitoring at its ports or airport, and told Reuters in Cairo it would not tolerate another blockade by Israel. "Even the blockade which will be lifted at six o'clock today, it should have been lifted the same hour the [UN Security Council] resolution 1701 has been issued. Because according to the text and contents of the resolution the blockade should be lifted, and also the withdrawal of all the Israeli military troops from Lebanon. Up till now Israel did not implement any part or any segment from the [UN Security Council] resolution 1701. So if there will be another, if Israel will think again of any blockade Lebanon will take the necessary measures to break any blockade will be imposed on Lebanon....The measures which are necessary, which the Lebanese government decides," said Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh whilst on a visit to Egypt. Israel bombed Beirut airport and coastal radars and barred shipping from Lebanese ports after Hizbollah captured two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. Salloukh, who is close to Hizbollah, said the two soldiers could only be freed after negotiations for the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel. Lebanon, which has sent 8,600 troops to tighten control of its border with Syria, a main Hizbollah supply route in the past, has asked U.N. naval forces to help patrol its coast. Annan has said he will send a secret envoy to the region this week to work on the issue, one of several unfulfilled elements in the U.N. resolution that halted the conflict. Another is the continued presence of Israeli troops in some pockets of south Lebanon they seized in the war and in the Shebaa Farms area, claimed by Lebanon, but viewed by the United Nations as Syrian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said the U.N. Resolution needed to be implemented fully. "I celebrate the lifting of the blockade announced yesterday by Israel which should go into effect this afternoon. The implementation of this resolution also involves ensuring the completion of Israel's withdrawal simultaneous to the deployment of the reinforced UNIFIL, the liberation of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers, respecting the arms embargo, the disarmament of the militias, and lastly, arriving at a solution to the Sheeba farms problem." Under the U.N. Security Council resolution that halted the war on Aug. 14, up to 15,000 U.N. troops are to join a similar number of Lebanese soldiers deploying in the south to secure a border zone free of any Israeli or armed Hizbollah presence. jrc/

ITN Source | September 7, 2006

Tags:. .territory. .seized. .halted. .afraid. .implemented