BEIRUT: The United Nations representative in Lebanon said on Wednesday that a solution was near on the matter of Israeli troops who continue to occupy the Lebanese border village of Ghajar.
We discussed the issue of Ghajar and we are confident that we will find very soon a good solution to the question of Ghajar, so that this will not remain a problem, said Gier Pedersen, representative of the UN chief Kofi Annan.
I will not give you any time, but we are working very, very hard. We hope to find a quick solution, Pedersen told reporters after a meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Sallukh.
The village of Ghajar, which straddles the Israeli-Lebanese border, is the last position occupied by Israeli forces since its soldiers left southern Lebanon on October 1.
The Israeli withdrawal came almost seven weeks after a UN-brokered truce took effect on August 14, ending 34 days of war between the Jewish state and the Hezbollah Shiite militant group.
Pedersen said the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is discussing this with the Lebanese side and the Israeli side.
Ghajar, at the foot of Mount Hermon straddling the Lebanese-Syrian border, is perched on a cliff overlooking the precious Wazzani spring, which has been a source of continuous disputes between Israel and Lebanon.
It is inhabited by Alawites, most of whom have obtained Israeli citizenship even though they consider themselves Syrian.
The village is an extension of the Syrian Golan Heights plateau, which Israel occupied during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and then annexed in 1981.
According to a UN-drawn blue line marking the border between Israel and Lebanon following the May 2000 Israeli troop pullout, two thirds of the village is on Lebanese soil, while the other third is part of occupied Syrian territory.
Pedersen said Annan was also working very hard to find a solution to the Shebaa Farms border territory, occupied by Israel since 1967 and claimed by Lebanon. Hopefully when the time is right, we can discuss this in little more detail, he said.
