Syria Warns UN Not to Disarm Hizbullah

May 26.2000

Syria today warned the United Nations not to try disarming Hizbullah, Israel Radio reported. Foreign Minister Farouk Shara said in a statement that Hizbullah is not a militia in a country involved in a civil war, but is a resistance movement and as such the UN has no business acting against it.

UN special envoy Terje Larsen said Hizbullah must accept UN authority, but the question is whether Israel has fulfilled the requirements of the withdrawal under UN Security Council Resolution 425. Larsen noted at a Beirut press conference that Lebanon has agreed to accept the UN's ruling that Israel has completed its withdrawal, despite not pulling out of the Shaba farms area at the foot of Mount Dov, as demanded by Hizbullah.

Larsen said the Shaba question is a technical one, and not a political issue.

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