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Lebanese PM Asks UN to Help Seek Permanent Truce with Israel


Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, right, speaks to journalists, as he stands next of Head of Mission and Force Commander of UNIFIL, Maj. Gen. Michael Beary, left, at U.N. peacekeepers headquarters, at the coastal border town of Naqoura, south Lebanon, April 21, 2017.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, right, speaks to journalists, as he stands next of Head of Mission and Force Commander of UNIFIL, Maj. Gen. Michael Beary, left, at U.N. peacekeepers headquarters, at the coastal border town of Naqoura, south Lebanon, April 21, 2017.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri asked the United Nations on Friday to help Lebanon and Israel move towards a permanent ceasefire and end what he called Israel's "continuous violations" of Lebanese territory.

Israel and Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah group fought a month-long war in 2006 that concluded with a cessation of hostilities but without a formal peace deal.

"I urge the U.N. secretary general to support efforts to secure, as soon as possible, a state of permanent ceasefire. This is long overdue and my government is committed to move this agenda forward," Hariri said.

Hariri was speaking on a visit to south Lebanon a day after Hezbollah officials staged a media tour near the same area to view what they said were recent Israeli fortifications on the border and to state their preparedness in case of any new war.

An Israeli bulldozer makes sand barriers on a road to an Israeli settlement, during a media trip organized by Hezbollah to show journalists the defensive measures established by the Israeli forces to prevent against any Hezbollah infiltration into Israel, April 20, 2017.
An Israeli bulldozer makes sand barriers on a road to an Israeli settlement, during a media trip organized by Hezbollah to show journalists the defensive measures established by the Israeli forces to prevent against any Hezbollah infiltration into Israel, April 20, 2017.

The tour drew a response from Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, who said in a Facebook post that Hezbollah's media tour was to "shake their sabres and pound their chests."

Under U.N. resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese army is responsible for security on its side of the border in a zone from which any other armed force, including Hezbollah, is banned.

The United Nations also maintains a peacekeeping force on the border.

Resolution 1701 also required Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory. Lebanon says that Israel has not fulfilled this because it continues to occupy a disputed area known in Lebanon as the Shebaa Farms.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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