Lahoud: Lebanon refuses ro bargain rights to our waters
Lebanon-Israel, Politics, 9/21/2002

The Lebanese President Emil Lahoud stressed that the continued Israeli threats against Syria and Lebanon, and the Israeli continued attacks against the Palestinian people, all fall in the course of a strategy set by the Israeli government to keep the explosive situation in the region, and to foil any regional and international initiative aiming at finding out a just and comprehensive solution for the Arab- Israeli conflict.

President Lahoud said during his meeting in Beirut on Friday with the EU Middle East peace process envoy Miguel Moratinos that Sharon is proceeding with implementation of his aggressive policy against the Palestinians.

He stressed that such a grave situation requires an Arab, European, and international effort "to stop the massacres committed by Israel daily against the Palestinians," and to pressure it to implement UN resolutions which are the only guarantee for the establishment of a just and comprehensive peace.

President Lahoud explained to the European delegation Lebanon's position concerning benefiting from its share to al-Wazzani spring water, stressing that what the Lebanese government implemention of these projects comes in the context of international agreements which take into account the distribution of shared springs and water.

Moratinos expressed the EU readiness to help solve the water crisis between Lebanon and Israel.

Meantime, the Lebanese work continued on installing the pipes for bringing the water of al-Wazzani river to 60 villages and towns in the central and eastern sectors of south Lebanon.

The supervisor of the workshop, Ali Wahbi, said that the government's instructions were issued to increase the pace of the work in order to complete the project as soon as possible, and for that reason "we doubled the number of workers." Meantime, Lebanese security sources said the Israeli forces increased its moves in the area where these Lebanese workers are, and bombarded by heavy artillery several villages in south Lebanon.

The sources added that the Burket al-Naqqar heights to the south of Shebaa in the eastern sector were exposed to an artillery bombardment from the backward Israeli positions inside the occupied Shebaa farms and that five shells of 155 mm caliber were fires and resulted in material losses.

The hills of Jabal al-Seddanah, and the surrounding of Burket al-Naqqar were also exposed to the Israeli artillery bombardment followed by a mopping up operation carried out by the Israeli position in Rweiset al-Alam and targeted the heights of Jabal al-Saddanah and Jouret al-Dahnoun to the west of Shebaa town.

Previous Stories:
  American experts arrive to investigate al-Wazzani project crisis   (9/20/2002)
  American team investigation over al-Wazzani project   (9/18/2002)
  Israel and al-Wazzani river waters   (9/16/2002)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search