UN chief and south Lebanon

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has asserted that he has reached an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon is part of the withdrawal from the Golan and in the context of a comprehensive peace process in the Middle East, but Israel has given up this agreement.

In an interview with the correspondent of the BBC radio in Rome, Annan stated that he made several attempts during his meeting in Geneva with Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy to make Israel give up unilateral withdrawal from south Lebanon without reaching peace with Syria, but his request was met by Israeli rejection.