The United Nations denied an Israeli newspaper report that
said it had asked Israel to cede control over Shebaa Farms.
Israel’s daily Ha’aretz reported Tuesday that the United
Nations had proposed it take control of the farms, which Israel captured along
with the neighboring Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War but which Lebanon’s
Hezbollah claims as its own.
According to the article, U.N. officials, having long
designated Shebaa Farms as having been part of Syria, not Lebanon, wanted to
re-designate it as part of Lebanon.
But Reuters quoted a U.N. source saying that no such request
had been made of Israel and that the world body has not re-designated the area,
known by Israel as Mount Dov.
Hezbollah has used Israel’s presence in the territory as
a pretext for attacking Israel, saying the farms are part of Lebanese
territory. But the United Nation’s certified Israel’s full withdrawal from
Lebanon in 2000 and says the farms are matter of dispute between Israel and
Syria, not Lebanon.
