January 14, 2002
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Lebanon's ambassador, Selim Tadmoury, said the force was needed to monitor ''the serious violations and provocations in which Israeli engages on a daily basis on land, at sea and in the air.''
But Annan is expected to go ahead with a plan outlined last year and have a report on it before the current mandate of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, expires on Jan. 31. In the main, U.N. officials have expressed frustration that Beirut has not asserted control over southern Lebanon following Israel's withdrawal in May 2000 and left the region to Hizbollah guerrillas.
UNIFIL's numbers have been reduced from 5,800 to 3,600 troops since Israel's withdrawal from the south after 22 years of occupation. The force is expected to drop to some 2,000 soldiers by mid-year. Annan's plans, which would gradually turn the operation into an observer force, were approved in principle by the U.N. Security Council last July, after similar objections from Beirut.
Tadmoury, in his letter, said Lebanon believed that ''any eventual reconfiguration of the force would undermine the sense of security and safety and would hinder the full, effective and efficient implementation of its mandate.''
Since the Israeli withdrawal, its military has conducted flights over Lebanon almost daily, drawing anti-aircraft fire from the Lebanese army and Hizbollah. The flights are mainly in response to Hizbollah actions against Israeli soldiers, particularly in the Shebaa Farms, a disputed border area near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The United Nations, which has criticized Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, rejects claims by Syria, Lebanon and Hizbollah that Shebaa Farms is Lebanese soil.
It considers the area Syrian land occupied by Israel unless Lebanon and Syria sign a treaty changing the border, which they have not done.
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