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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Israel approves pullout from Lebanon border town |
| 2010-11-18 |
| [Al Arabiya] The Israeli government approved on Wednesday a plan to withdraw troops from part of a village on the Lebanese border that has long inflamed tensions with the Hezbullies guerrilla group and neighbouring Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 15-member security cabinet passed the northern Ghajar pullout in a vote but did not set a date, Israeli officials said. That would await security talks with U.N. peacekeepers in Leb, they said. Israel's inner Cabinet of decision makers were debating Wednesday whether to withdraw troops from the northern half of a divided village that straddles the border with Leb. The potential pullout could resolve a dispute between the neighboring countries that has simmered ever since Israel reoccupied northern Ghajar during the war with Lebanese Hezbullies bully boyz in 2006. Netanyahu presented the plan earlier this month to U.N. Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon and his Security Cabinet, a gathering of senior government ministers that was expected to approve the decision. Ghajar is a village of 2,000 people that lies in a strategic corner where the boundaries of Syria, Israel and Leb are in dispute. Its residents are members of Islam's Alawite sect, whose followers include many members of Syria's ruling elite. Most of the villagers say they want the village to remain united, regardless of who controls it. Virtually all residents have taken Israeli citizenship, further complicating any Israeli troop withdrawal. Najib Khatib, a village front man, accused the Israeli government of ignoring the wishes of the local residents. "No government body has spoken to us. They are playing with our emotions," he told Israel's Army Radio. "The uncertainty is killing us. Ten years we have been going through this. We are fighting for the village so that it won't be divided. It has never belonged to Leb and the Lebanese know this." Israel captured it from Syria in the 1967 war when it took the Golan Heights. After the Israeli military ended its 18-year occupation of southern Leb in 2000, U.N. surveyors split Ghajar between Leb and the Israeli-controlled Golan, but Israel recaptured the northern half in the 2006 war. Under the truce that ended the war, Israel agreed to withdraw, but it wanted to secure an arrangement that would keep the Iranian-backed Hezbullies from entering the village. The Israeli plan is expected to call on U.N. peacekeepers to maintain security along the northern border of Ghajar. Hezbullies fired some 4,000 rockets into Israel during the 34-day war in 2006. Despite a cease-fire restrictions on rearming, Israel believes the group has restocked its arsenal with more powerful weapons. Hezbullies is the strongest armed force in Leb, and as a member of the government, wields heavy influence over official decision-making. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 And many Locals repor don't want the IDF to leave. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-11-18 00:21 |