Report: U.S. Golan Move Raises Lebanese ‘Concerns’ over Shebaa Farms
Lebanon’s position on the US decision to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights was not limited to resentment, but also raised fears that this decision would include the Lebanese occupied territories of Shebaa Farms, which Israel considers as part of Golan, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Friday.
Shebaa Farms are located on the border between Lebanon and the occupied part of Golan. It has a strategic geographical location as it links northern Israeli settlements and occupied Golan.
Lebanese concerns stem from the fact that when Lebanon claimed its right to get back Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shuba following the Israeli army’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, the United Nations replied that it was a land linked to Golan, reported the daily.
Israel occupied these farms in 1967. But prior to 2000, there was a Lebanese-Syrian dispute over whether the farms belonged to Lebanon or Syria due to overlapping land and lack of official delineation between the two countries.
But after the liberation of southern Lebanon and the Israeli withdrawal, Syria declared without formal documentation that Shebaa Farms belongs to Lebanon. President Bashar al-Assad said in January 2006 that Shebaa Farms were Lebanese, but stressed that "the demarcation of the border will be after Israel withdraws from this area.”
After Trump’s recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan, Lebanese officials issued a series of opposing positions, most notably President Michel Aoun who described the day when the US decided to give Israel that right as the "Black Day.”.
However, Lebanese officials did not see any reason to consider the recent US decision to include Lebanon’s occupied territory, said the daily.
A Lebanese official told Asharq al-Awsat on condition of anonymity: "No one mentioned our land to declare its annexation to Israel. Therefore, the official Lebanese positions were limited to criticizing the move because it affects Syria and its lands. Our occupied territories were never part of Golan.”
On the other hand, Head of Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis -Inegma Riad Kahwaji told Asharq al-Awsat: “As long as Shebaa Farms, the Kfar Shuba Hills and the village of Ghajar are for Israel a territory belonging to Golan, most of which were occupied in 1967, the American recognition of its sovereignty over Golan automatically means its sovereignty over its territories including occupied Lebanese territories.”
Kahwaji added: “What makes things worse is the absence of clear documents and maps that determine where Golan begins and where it ends. The Syrians have always wanted to keep things ambiguous. There was an oral position by Assad that Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shuba Hills are Lebanese territory, but the Syrian government refused to submit anything in writing accompanied by maps and documents.”
He told the daily that “Lebanese maps prove that Shebaa Farms are Lebanese lands occupied by the Syrians in the 1950s, and when Israel occupied the Golan Heights and that part of land the file turned into a Syrian-Israeli file and Israel is dealing with these territories as occupied Syria.”
Kahwaji did not rule out the possibility of a military reaction, saying: “If they decide to open the Golan front, there will be a great Israeli reaction. We do not rule out the fact that the American-Israeli move was meant to drive this reaction as a prelude to a military action," he said "Let us wait and see how things develop."
Source: Naharnet
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