Army organizes Blue Line tour for representatives of Security Council members

The Lebanese Army on Tuesday organized a Blue Line tour for the representatives of the U.N. Security Council members.

The Blue Line was drawn by the United Nations between Lebanon and Israel in the wake of the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon in the year 2000. The line remains unmarked for half of its length.

The army said the tour aimed to offer explanations about the aforementioned line and the contested border points.

Lebanese Army brigadier general Munir Chehade said the tour comes days before the U.N. Security Council renews the annual mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

“The Israelis do not respect the laws and today they violated the territorial waters under the eyes of the international delegations,” Chehade told reporters during the tour.

“Today the word demarcation is no longer in use and we will replace it with the phrase ‘border highlighting,’” Chehade added, noting that the international border had been demarcated in 1923 and again through the 1949 Lebanon-Israeli Armistice Agreement.

“There are 14 contested points and we call them occupied areas, in addition to the Shebaa Farms,” Chehade said.

“The Shebaa Farms are occupied Lebanese territory and we do not acknowledge the Blue Line in them,” he added, while also noting that Lebanon no longer uses the phrase “the northern part of the Ghajar village.”

“We have sent a memo to the U.N. saying that the northern part of the Ghajar village has become called the outskirts of the town of al-Mari, because the Ghajar village is Syrian and its constructional expansion has spread to Lebanese territory in the outskirts of the town of al-Mari,” the brigadier general added.