Lebanon rebuffed Ehud Olmert’s call to seek peace with Israel.
The Lebanese government in a statement Wednesday sidestepped the Israeli prime minister’s idea of rapprochement with Jerusalem. Instead it called on Israel to first “end the occupation of the Shebaa Farms.”
Israel captured the Shebaa Farms along with the adjacent Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War, later annexing both. The United States considers the area to be Syrian, but Lebanon has long staked a claim to the Shebaa Farms.
On Tuesday, Olmert told his Cabinet he hoped Lebanon would follow Syria’s example by launching peace talks with Israel.
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