Israel continues military moves in South Lebanon; Lahoud asks US for neutrality

While Israel continued its military moves in south Lebanon, the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud stressed the need of US neutrality in dealing with the Middle East question.

During his meeting on Thursday with former US Senator James Abourezk, the Lebanese president explained to the American delegation which includes activists against racial discrimination, pressmen and businessmen of Lebanese origin, Lebanon's position towards current regional and international developments and the efforts made to take the peace process out of its current stalemate as a result of the Israeli practices.

Meantime, the Lebanese foreign minister Mahmoud Hammoud received a message from his Egyptian counterpart Ahmad Maher conveyed by the Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon Hatem Seif al-Naser.

The message dealt with the efforts made to resuming the ME peace process and results of the visit made recently by the US President Hosni Mubarak to Washington.

Concerning the situation in south Lebanon, Lebanese security sources said the Lebanese borders with Israel on Thursday witnessed Israeli military moves at a time when the Israeli workshops continued their work to construct roads between the occupied Lebanese Shebaa farms and the occupied Syrian Golan heights.

The sources explained it monitored Israeli military moves including tanks and armored vehicles and trucks moving intensively between the Shebaa farms and the Golan, noting that the trucks are still working between the line separating Lebanon from Israel in order to construct new roads under strong guarding from military helicopters which were flying for hours in the airspace of the area and opened its machine guns fire at Burket Bathayel, and the hills of Eastern Kafer Shouba. No human losses were reported.