Lebanon rejects call by Olmert for peace talks (Roundup)

Middle East News

Jun 11, 2008, 15:54 GMT

Beirut - Lebanon on Wednesday rejected a call by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for peace talks and demanded that Israel withdraw from disputed area of Shebaa in southern Lebanon. 'There are pending bilateral issues between Lebanon and Israel which are governed by international resolutions which Israel must respect ... and which cannot be the object of political negotiations,' a government statement said. 'Israel ... must respect Lebanon's sovereignty over its territory and its water, release prisoners and provide maps on mines and cluster bombs' left in Lebanon during past conflicts, it said. On Tuesday the Israeli prime minister suggested holding peace talks with Lebanon, following last month's announcement of indirect, Turkish-mediated negotiations with Syria. In May 2000, Israel withdrew from south Lebanon after a 22-year occupation in line with UN Security Council Resolution 425 but the Jewish state still held onto the Shebaa Farms on the borders with Lebanon and Syria. Lebanon and Israel have officially been in a state of war since 1948, when the Jewish state was established, despite having signed an armistice agreement in 1949. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora pledged two years ago that Lebanon would be 'the last Arab country to sign' a peace treaty with Israel. Earlier Wednesday, the leader of Hezbollah deputies in the Lebanese parliament, Mohammad Raad, rejected an initiative to place the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms under the control of the United Nations. Raad told Hezbollah-run al-Manar television that such a move would prevent the militant group from achieving its goal of liberating the occupied territories. The initiative to place the territory under the control of the United Nations was reportedly put forward by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who visited Lebanon last week. Lebanon's newly-elected president, Michel Suleiman, said Monday that he would provide the world body with documents 'that will prove the Shebaa Farms belong to Lebanon.' Israel occupied Shebaa in the 1967 Middle East war and has refused to return it on the grounds that its status is ambiguous. According to the plan proposed to the UN, the Shebaa Farms would be demarcated and returned to Lebanon at some future stage. The UN considers Shebaa Farms Syrian territory, while Lebanon - with the approval of Damascus - claims sovereignty over the territory. Security Council Resolution 1701 which put an end to a 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 also demanded an Israeli pullout from the Shebaa Farms.

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margeJun 11th, 2008 - 16:12:59

Good for Lebanon. All arab countries should reject peace with the apartheid, racist, State of Israel until it frees the Palestinian people and stop its land stealing, murder, genocide, and other war crimes and human rights violations against the Palestinian and arab people. Arab countries and Iran should all be trying to get nuclear bombs to become militarily as powerful as Israel, which will force peace in the region.

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CharlesJun 11th, 2008 - 19:58:42

Would your formula for peace in ME include the existence of the country of Israel?

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margeJun 11th, 2008 - 23:36:34

To Charles

Israel has every right to exist in peace with its arab and persian neighbors as long as Israel returns to its pre-1967 borders and stops its land stealing, murdering, war crimes, and human rights violations against its neighbors. I criticize Israel because Israel's crimes against its arab neighbors are responsible for the cycle of violence between Jews and Palestinians, and Jews other arab countries as well.

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Lebanon rejects call by Olmert for peace talks (Roundup)

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