U.N. peacekeepers are asking Israel to remove a barrier that Lebanon says is on its soil.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 14, 2006
KFAR KILA, Lebanon - U.N. peacekeepers asked Israel's army on Wednesday to pull down a new barbed-wire barrier that Lebanon said encroached on its territory, but Israel denied it was on Lebanese soil - setting up a test of the month-old cease-fire.
The handover of south Lebanon continued, with Lebanese troops taking control of a large border zone in the war-ravaged area for the first time in three decades.
Blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers inspected the disputed barrier - two coils of barbed wire just across from the Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora protested the barrier and a spokesman for the U.N. mission in Lebanon said the peacekeeping force had asked Israel's army to remove it.
"We expect them to do so as quickly as possible," Alexander Ivanko said.
But the Israeli military, which said it was repairing the fence along the route set down in a 2000 U.N. resolution, denied it was inside Lebanese territory.
Israeli troops continue to withdraw from south Lebanon a month after the cease-fire ended 34 days of fighting with Hezbollah militants that began July 12. Hundreds of people died and thousands fled their homes.
At their peak, an estimated 30,000 Israeli troops were in Lebanon. Israel, whose forces in the country now number a few thousand, said Friday it expected to have all its troops out within two weeks.
New barriers were put up in several places, including the Khiam plain and the town of Gadjar, covering an area about 2 miles long, Lebanese army and U.N. officials said.
About 6 miles away, Lebanese soldiers in a column of jeeps and armored vehicles took control of a 125-square-mile zone for the first time in decades.
Under the U.N. resolution that ended the conflict, 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers are to secure a buffer zone with Israel in south Lebanon, supporting an equal number of Lebanese troops.
The resolution also calls for disarming Hezbollah, which Israel has made a key condition for peace.
But it is unclear whether the U.N. troops or the Lebanese army will risk confrontation with the well-armed guerrilla group.
