Diplomats held urgent talks with the UN on Monday in an effort to contain fallout from the most recent Hizbollah attack in the disputed Shabaa Farms, reported the Daily Star.
Meanwhile, Hizbollah warned Israel that it would launch rocket attacks on Israeli cities if the Jewish state did not halt its retaliation against civilian areas inside Lebanon, said reports.
The Star said that both UNIFIL and government representatives were busy urging self-restraint as they scrambled to avoid stoking regional tensions.
Staffan de Mistura, special envoy of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the South, declined to outline the UN's official position on the day's events, pending a full report by UNIFIL.
Sources said UN officials had received only an initial account of the incident, which fell on the eve of a scheduled meeting by the Security Council to discuss Annan's proposed UNIFIL troop reduction. The proposal would see the total number of peacekeepers reduced to 2,000 by Aug. 1, 2002.
While the UN says UNIFIL has completed its mission, a claim denied by Beirut, the reduction is also being prompted by economic concerns. UNIFIL's leading supporters, the US and the EU, contribute 50-60 per cent of UNIFIL's annual budget between them, said the daily.
Moreover, UN delegates from the US and France have said that the plans for a phased, rather than an immediate, withdrawal are in fact "a service" which the Security Council is granting the country.
However, a diplomatic report told the paper that despite the support for Annan expressed by the Security Council's five permanent members, the government would nonetheless adhere to its viewpoint at Tuesday's session.
In its letter to the UN, the government said reducing the force would "endanger regional stability" and "increase anxiety."
The country's objection will be spelled out by Tunisia's delegate to the Security Council, Noureddine Majzoub, who will insist that at least 4,500 troops be maintained in the south – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
