December 7, 2000
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan Thursday appointed Stefan de Mistura as his new personal representative for southern Lebanon, replacing Rolf Knutsson who has been in the post since August 9, according to a U.N. statement released in Beirut. The statement said De Mistura, a 53-year-old Swede who is presently the director of the U.N. Information Center in Rome, was expected to assume his new duties in Beirut in early January. Knutsson, who has served as Annan's personal representative in south Lebanon since August 9, has been appointed the new executive secretary of the Geneva-based U.N. Compensation Commission (for Iraq).
The position of personal representative for southern Lebanon was created following the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon May 24, which ended 22 years of occupation.
De Mistura's new job comes as the United Nations reiterates calls for restraint and respect of the so-called "Blue Line" set by the international organization to verify Israel's withdrawal from the area.
Shabaa farms is an area of dispute, captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 war. Israel maintains a troop presence there, arguing it is not part of the withdrawal from Lebanon since it is Syrian territory. The United Nations also says the farms belong to Syria.
On Tuesday, Kieran Prendergast, U.N. under secretary-general for political affaires, told UPI that Syria's recent statement that the disputed border area of the Shabaa farms belonged to Lebanon was a "step" to solve the problem. The Syrian statement was made by Mikhael Wehbe, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, in a letter to the president of the Security Council on Oct. 24 in which he referred to the "incomplete Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon up to the internationally recognized border, including the Shabaa farms." This was the first Syrian document that said the farms belonged to Lebanon.
Prendergast said the comments "may well be a step in the direction of eventually solving the matter in the way the two countries (Syria and Lebanon) wish."
Israel has been treatening harsh retaliation against Lebanon and Syria because of recent Hezbollah attacks and operations in the Shabaa area on the Lebanese-Israeli border. Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas, who argue that the Israeli pullout from south Lebanon is incomplete, have pledged to continue fighting until it recovers the Shabaa farms and frees some 19 Lebanese prisoners still held in Israeli jails. Last month, Hezbollah carried out two bombing attacks against Israeli soldiers in Shabaa farms, killing one soldier and wounding two others.
Knutsson condemned the first Hezbollah attack, saying it was a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 425, but later he tried to explain his comments by reiterating that the Blue Line does not cover the Shabaa farms.
On Oct. 7, Hezbollah captured three Israeli soldiers in the Shabaa region and a week later its chief, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, announced the capture of a former Israeli army colonel, who he said was working for Mossad intelligence. Israel denied the charge, saying he was a businessman. Nasrallah has proposed exchanging the four Israeli prisoners for some 19 Lebanese prisoners and a number of Palestinians and other Arabs held in Israeli jails.
