Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Saturday that “the Lebanese State does not want to prevent UNIFIL from organizing patrols along the country’s southern border”, insisting that the “UN force must coordinate with the Lebanese army in view of the tensions that could arise in the region.”
In an interview with the “al-Mayadeen” TV station, Bou Habib stressed that his ministry and the government had repeatedly called on the Security Council to put an end to Israeli violations of Resolution 1701 by land, sea, and air so that Lebanese violations would also cease.”
The Minister also revealed in this context that the ambassadors of the five powers to Lebanon had discussed the tents in Shebaa with him. “I told them that the discussion should focus on the occupation of the Lebanese farms in Shebaa, not on the tents that are set there,” he added.
Turning to the Syrian refugee crisis, Abdallah Bou Habib said that “the West’s stance on the displaced goes against the Syrian regime since these countries have still not accepted that the war is over,” pointing out that Lebanon will be taking part in a meeting of the Arab Committee on Syria to be held in mid-August in Cairo. He continued: “Syrian migrants have entered Cyprus illegally, and the Cypriot authorities asked us to host them but we refused.”
Commenting on the absence of Sweden’s Ambassador to Beirut, Ann Dismorr, Bou Habib said that the diplomat is currently on vacation, adding that he had asked her to extend her stay abroad after the head of Hezbollah had called for her expulsion following the desecration of a Koran in Sweden.
