In what was described as a shocking report for Israel, a UN cartographer has determined for the first time that the Israeli-held Sheba'a Farms belong to Lebanon, supporting a position long held by Lebanon and Syria. Reports on the cartography met with tightlipped response from Hezbollah.
The report, leaked to the press on the eve of the first anniversary of Israel's 33-day war on Lebanon, stated that the UN has asked the Israeli government to hand over the Farms to the UN. However, both Israeli and UN officials scrambled to deny the report, published in Haaretz. According to sources in the Israeli paper, Haaretz obtained "the draft" of the cartographer's report from its own UN sources.
No Israeli official was available to comment on the record on the report because of the sensitivity of the issue. But Israeli official sources told the Gulf News correspondent in Occupied Jerusalem on condition of anonymity that the report was discussed by the Israeli Security Cabinet yesterday and the issue was left pending for further clarification by the UN and the US.
Israeli media sources said the report has been made available to Israel for "a while", but was not publicly disclosed to avoid "angry reactions from Israelis that would torpedo their perception that the borders between Lebanon and Israel were carefully drawn," an Israeli journalist told Gulf News. "The report demolishes one of the strong points in Israel's war [on Lebanon]. Israelis are shocked," he added.
Israel captured the 25-square km area on the Israel-Lebanon-Syria border as part of the Syrian Golan Heights during the 1967 War. When Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, it was announced that the withdrawal was complete, as the UN has viewed the Sheba'a Farms as Syrian land, but both Lebanon and Syria said it was Lebanese territory.
Despite repeated attempts by Gulf News, officials in the Lebanese government and Hezbollah were tightlipped and would only comment after an official announcement from the UN. |