Disputed Shebaa Farms the new hot potato

Note from Yuya: Lebanon wants this area "internationalized" as part of the ceasefire propsal, but the UN feels it is Syrian land, so the situation gets more complex. In my peace plan I propose that the Palestininians should be allocated this area and most of the Golan, in addition to Gaza and the West Bank. To me it seems the most contentious issues are Jeruslaem and the right of return. Shebaa Farms and Golan could go a long way to making the new Palestinian state not only viable, but healthy and progressive. Please see Canadian Peace Plan for Mideast


By Evelyn Leopold, Reuters

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Lebanon wants a new U.N. truce resolution that would enable U.N. peacekeepers to take over the Shebaa farms from Israel until sovereignty over the border area can be established.

Israel captured the area at its border with Lebanon and Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. After Israel pulled out of south Lebanon in 2000, ending a 22-year occupation, the United Nations ruled Shebaa farms were part of Syria not Lebanon.

But Hizbollah, the Shi'ite "Party of God," insists the land is part of Lebanon and has made it a reason for war with Israel for nearly a month. Now the United States and France are trying to hammer out a U.N. cease-fire resolution.

The 10-square-mile area (25 sq km) area, which overlooks Israeli towns, has become a matter of national honor for the Beirut government. Lebanon demands the resolution call for an "immediate withdrawal" of Israeli forces.

The area, where some Lebanese farmers live, would be placed in "U.N. custody, pending delineation of the border in this area between Lebanon and Syria," the Lebanese amendment says.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said on Monday the issue was one for Syria and Lebanon to resolve and the draft resolution asks U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to come up with proposals to settle the borders.

Bolton said that before the current crisis, Hizbollah guerrillas had branded Shebaa as Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory and used it as an excuse to arm.

U.N. SAYS IT'S SYRIAN

"It is surely a pretext that Hizbollah ... maintains anti-ship cruise missiles in its arsenal in order to liberate the Shebaa farms," Bolton told reporters.

Israel occupied southern Lebanon in 1978 and withdrew in May 2000. The United Nations was asked to delineate the borders to certify Israeli troops had left.

After studying dozens of maps dating back to the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Syria and Israel, the United Nations said Shebaa farms were in Syrian territory but both sides were free to make changes, which they have not.

Hizbollah, which had fought the Israeli occupation, insisted it needed to keep up its armed resistance because it said Israel was still on Lebanese territory in Shebaa.

In October 2005, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan released for the first time a letter written by Lebanese President Emile Lahoud in June 2000, accepting the temporary border.

Lahoud said that "while the United Nations notes that this line can in no way be regarded as affecting the rights of the parties concerned with respect to their international boundaries, Lebanon has accepted this assessment until such time as a joint formula for the farmlands area can be agreed by Lebanon and Syria for submission to the United Nations."