Lebanese army moves into South Lebanon positions after Israeli withdrawal, UN reports

The Lebanese army started deploying along the line separating Israel and Lebanon today following Israel’s withdrawal from nearly all the positions it occupied in this summer’s conflict with Hizbollah, the United Nations mission reported.

UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Acting Commander Brig.-General J.P. Nehra, who met with Lebanese Armed Forces Commander General M. Sleiman, at UN headquarters in Naquora, said Israel was expected to withdraw from the remaining area it still holds, Ghajar, this week.

UNIFIL troops from the Ghanaian, French, Spanish and Indian battalions conducted extensive patrolling yesterday and today and confirmed Israel’s withdrawal from all other areas. A complete withdrawal, together with the Lebanese army deployment, is a key clause in UN Resolution 1701 that ended the 34 days of fighting in August.

The Resolution also mandates strengthening UNIFIL to a maximum of 15,000 troops. At present it has some 5,000 troops on the ground, but the second phase of deployment may be delayed by up to a month due to problems of logistics and capacity, the UN Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) said in it latest update.

Six ships, including Italian, French, Greek and British vessels, are currently patrolling Lebanese waters as part of the interim Maritime Force, and a German vessel is due to arrive early this month, it added.

“The LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) can now provide security and stability for the people of the South who have already suffered a great deal,” UNIFIL Force Commander Maj.-General Alain Pellegrini said yesterday after Israel announced its latest withdrawal. “UNIFIL is here to assist, and to help to ensure the territorial integrity of Lebanon.”

Meanwhile, a UN-led international team of experts will tomorrow begin an assessment of the environmental damage caused by the conflict. “There is an urgent need to assess the environmental legacy of the recent conflict and put in place a comprehensive clean-up of polluted and health-hazardous sites,” UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said.

“Work is on-going to deal with the oil spill on the Lebanese coast. We must now look at the wider impacts as they relate to issues such as underground and surface water supplies, coastal contamination and the health and fertility of the land,” he added.

The UNEP-led team, working closely with Lebanese authorities, will sample sites thought to present potential risks to human health, wildlife and the wider environment.

These include the Jiyyeh thermal power plant 28 kilometres south of Beirut which discharged an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 tonnes of fuel oil into the Mediterranean after being hit in mid July; Beirut International Airport, where fuel tanks were set alight as a result of repeated bombing; and the Maliban glass factory in the Bekaa Valley destroyed by an air raid on 19 July.

Some of the estimated 22 country-wide petrol stations that were damaged or destroyed will be assessed, as will locations where there is thought to be unexploded ordnance. The team also plans to assess pollution risks at several damaged drinking water, sewage treatment and hospital facility sites.

Damaged power transformers, collapsed buildings and ruptured oil lines that may have leaked or discharged hazardous substances and materials, such as asbestos and chlorinated compounds, are also earmarked for assessment.