Mideast situation/Lebanon – Letter from Lebanon

Identical letters dated 2 February 2001 from the Permanent Representative

of Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

and to the President of the Security Council

On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to inform you that there is definite information to the effect that Israel has established a gateway complex at the entrance to the village of Ghajar and that it has excavated a trench there and has set up a 400-metre-long concrete barrier equipped with high- technology devices running parallel to the road leading to Ghajar inside Lebanese territory. This was confirmed by Mr. Staffan de Mistura, Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for southern Lebanon, after visiting the area by helicopter, and is also corroborated by information gathered on the spot by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. These installations were built by Israel and are not the work of the inhabitants of Ghajar, as Israel claims.

The Lebanese Government calls your attention to the extreme gravity of the actions being undertaken by Israel, which constitute a flagrant violation of the Blue Line and a wanton assault on Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We urge you to intervene, to call upon Israel to halt these actions and restore the status quo ante and to ensure that Israel bears the consequences of its violation of the Blue Line and of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Sélim Tadmoury

Ambassador

Permanent Representative