Israel has objected strenuously to United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim against a plan to station UN observers on the Lebanese side of the Israeli-Lebanese border as a precaution against terrorist incursions against Israel. Israel’s principal objection is reportedly based on past experience between 1948 and the Six-Day War in 1967 when adjudication by UN truce observers introduced a complicating factor in the area.
In its statement to Waldheim, Israel contended that the UN observers stationed along its borders with Egypt and Jordan never prevented sabotage and were often accused of a lack of impartiality. According to Israel, responsibility for preventing terrorist incursions rests primarily on the governments of countries harboring terrorists. Moreover, Israel claimed, terrorist incursions occur at night and, therefore, cannot be observed. The terrain along the Lebanese border is such that no physical evidence, such as footprints are likely to remain.
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