July 25, 2000
Syria has asked the United Nations to take control of a partitioned town near the Golan Heights rather than giving part to Lebanon and leaving the rest under Israeli occupation, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Ghajar, on the edge of the Golan seized from Syria by Israel in the 1967 war, has been cut in two by the frontier drawn by the U.N. to determine whether Israel has ended its occupation of Lebanon following its troop pullout in May.
A ministry spokesman said Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara had stressed during a phone call with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday evening that Ghajar was a Syrian town.
"Mr Shara stressed the necessity of avoiding the partition of the Syrian town of Ghajar. He told Annan the U.N., represented by its UNIFIL and UNDOF forces, should shoulder its full responsibilities to ensure the unity of the town and its people far from the Israeli forces," the official said. "The U.N. chief expressed support for this humanitarian request and promised to exert his goodwill efforts to keep the town undivided and under the control of the U.N. peacekeeping forces until the implementation of U.N. resolutions 242 and 338 calling for Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the (pre-war) June 4, 1967 line," the official added.
Syria demands a full Israeli withdrawal from its lands occupied in 1967, including Ghajar. The Lebanese land Israel has returned since May was occupied first in 1978.
The official said Annan, who had called Shara, reported that Lebanon had been told there were now no Israeli violations of Lebanese territory. He said Shara stressed the necessity of "ensuring fully the end of the Israeli withdrawal from the Lebanese lands."
The Syrian spokesman said that Shara had later phoned Lebanese Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss to brief him on the conversation with Annan. "Viewpoints were identical on all issues discussed. Mr Shara affirmed to Hoss Syria's support to the Lebanese position regarding demarcation of the border and clearing the Israeli violations," he said.
Syria has held sporadic peace talks with Israel since 1991 but negotiations broke off in January. Syria, which recently called for a greater U.N. role in negotiations, has rejected Israel's demand for complete control of the Sea of Galilee.
