Egypt to UN: Demand Israel hand over Shaba Farms to int'l peacekeepers

Egypt asked United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the 15 members of the UN security cabinet several days ago to demand that Israel hand the Shaba Farms over to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), until the status of the disputed territory is determined either by a UN resolution or by the demarcation of the border between Syria and Lebanon.

Jerusalem sources said on Wednesday that Egypt is planning in coming days to submit an official letter to the security council and to the secretary general on the matter.

The Egyptian demand will maintain that since Lebanon elected Michel Suleiman president last month, the time is right to bolster the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora with a settlement on Shaba.

The sources added that the Egyptian ambassador to the UN is conducting talks on the matter with security council members in order to convince them that a solution to the Shaba Farms dispute would constitute a "blow to Hezbollah and Iran."

Shaba, located on the border between the Golan Heights and Lebanon, was omitted from Israel's May 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon because the Security Council said it was Syrian territory, not Lebanese. However, both the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have since insisted that Shaba is Lebanese, while Syria has refused to either back or dispute this claim. Following the Second Lebanon War almost two years ago, therefore, the UN agreed to set up a task force to determine where exactly the Lebanese-Syrian border lies.

The Lebanese government had proposed in 2006 that Israeli troops be replaced by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which would hand the area over to Lebanon should the UN conclude finally that the area is Lebanese. However, Israel opposes this idea, and this week, Hezbollah said it would still consider Shaba occupied territory even if it were under UNIFIL's control.

In another month or so, the UN secretary general plans to brief the security council on the implementation of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War. In previous reports on the matter, the area was mentioned but not explicitly defined as either Lebanese or Syrian. In the coming report, Ban is expected to include a clearer statement regarding steps that should be taken to solve the dispute.

Government spokesman Mark Regev said Wednesday that Israel is interested in talks with Lebanon that would cover the Shaba dispute.

Regev's comments were the government's most explicit overture toward Lebanon. Last week, when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted Israel would be interested in talks with Beirut, the Lebanese government rejected the notion. On Wednesday, a Lebanese government official said that position hadn't changed.

Egyptian sources rejected Israel's call on Wednesday for a solution in the framework of bilateral talks between Jerusalem and Beirut. "Lebanon has enough internal problems that will prevent it from entering into talks with Israel. Good sense and political wisdom obligate Israel to fulfill its part here in order for stability to be achieved there," one of the sources said.

	The Shaba Farms.