By Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff
Thursday, July 02, 2009
 |
BEIRUT: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 does not sufficiently address the “dangers” of recently discovered Israeli spy cells, Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. Ban’s 10th report, issued late on Tuesday evening, urges the next Lebanese cabinet to renew its commitment to implementing Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended Israel’s 34-day war on Lebanon in July-August 2006.
As in previous reports, the UN chief reiterated his call for Lebanon and Israel to abide by the resolution’s obligations and cited a number of violations by both countries.
But with only two paragraphs of the 17-page report pertaining to Israeli espionage, Ban did “not fully highlight the danger of Israel’s spy networks in Lebanon, despite the fact that the Lebanese government has provided the UN with all the relevant information about them, along with proof and confessions,” a statement from the ministry said.
At least 30 people in Lebanon have been detained on suspicion of collaborating with Israel since a high-profile campaign was launched earlier this year. At least 15 people, including two Lebanese security officials, have been formally charged.
Ban said the discovery of the spy cells could pose a threat to the delicate peace between the two neighbors but “did not qualify these networks as being a threat to Lebanese sovereignty nor as a violation of the resolution,” the Foreign Ministry statement complained.
The report also makes reference to the importance of Israel’s recent handover of cluster-bomb-strike data in an “exaggerated way,” the statement said. While Ban lauded Israel’s May 12 handover as “a significant development” in the period since in his last report in March, the information “arrived late and after dozens of people had fallen victim” to cluster bombs left over from the 2006 hostilities, said the ministry. Moreover, Ban “anticipated” an evaluation currently being undertaken by the Lebanese Army as “useful,” despite a warning from the Lebanese government that “the information may not be accurate, especially as 37 recently discovered cluster bomb sites are not mentioned in the report given by Israel.”
The ministry added that while the Lebanese Armed Forces had requested specific data on Israel’s cluster bomb strike sites, Tel Aviv has yet to provide it.
According to the UN report, cluster bombs have caused 28 fatalities and 244 injuries among civilians since the end of hostilities in 2006, with an additional 14 fatalities and 43 injuries resulting from clearance activities. The figures come as a Lebanese demining worker with the Mines Advisory Group was wounded by a cluster bomb on Wednesday. Abbas Ali Chehade, 40, was wounded when the bomb exploded as he cleared a field in Yohmor, south Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry also called for greater clarity over Ban’s “unclear” references to weapons smuggling inside UNIFIL’s areas of operations south of the Litani River. “To date, UNIFIL has neither been provided with, nor found, evidence of new military infrastructure or the smuggling of arms into [UNIFIL's] area of operations” in south Lebanon, the UN report said. “Bearing in mind that it is impossible to prove a negative, the unauthorized presence and smuggling of weapons into the area cannot ever be entirely excluded,” it added.
The ministry praised Ban’s demand that Israel halt its “almost daily” illegal overflights into Lebanese airspace, and his reference to Tel Aviv’s continuing occupation of the Lebanese side of Ghajar village as a violation of Resolution 1701.
Other than calling for a full cessation of hostilities, Resolution 1701 also stipulates a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, and the redeployment of UNIFIL in south Lebanon.
1 Comment
July 3, 2009 at 8:08 am
[...] Ban report ignores 'danger of Israeli spy cells' « Gutter Poetry …BEIRUT: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 does not sufficiently address the “dangers” of recently discovered Israeli spy cells, Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry said … [...]