Global Policy Forum

By Christopher S. Wren

he Security Council hesitated again today to endorse Secretary General Kofi Annan's certification that Israel has totally withdrawn from southern Lebanon, after Beirut objected that Israelis still occupy patches of territory on the Lebanese side of their joint border. Mr. Annan released his confirmation of the Israeli withdrawal before leaving on a trip to the Middle East on Friday. The Security Council met yesterday to adopt a statement of approval, but failed to reach a consensus after 10 hours of talks that ended in deadlock last night.

Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright then intervened with a conference call that linked Lebanon's president Emile Lahoud in Beirut, Mr. Annan's special envoy for the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, at the United Nations and other officials. Believing that Beirut's misgivings were allayed, the council tentatively agreed to proceed today with its statement of approval. But when the council president, Jean-David Levitte of France, convened a new session this morning, Vladimir N. Sergeyev, a senior councillor in the Russian delegation, requested that the members go back to consultations, explaining that more clarification was needed.

Britain's deputy chief representative, Stewart Eldon, replied that the council had already spent a long time considering the approval, which he described as urgent. Mr. Eldon asked that the break be kept short so that the council could resume its work "extremely quickly."

Some diplomats said that Moscow had instructed the Russian delegation not to override Lebanon's objections. Russia wields veto power in the council, making the adoption of the statement impossible without its support. Lack of council approval would not only embarrass the Secretary General but, more important, would undermine the credibility of his current trip to the Middle East. Mr. Annan hoped to use the momentum of the Israeli withdrawal to galvanize other stalled peace negotiations in the Middle East.

Mr. Annan, who met Iranian President Mohammad Khatami in Tehran today, assured reporters that the problem would be "sorted out." "This is an issue that will be resolved," Mr. Annan said, according to Agence France-Presse. "Any encroachment by the Israelis will be a violation that would have to be reported to the Security Council and the international community would react." "I think we are in the right direction and there is no problem between the United Nations and Lebanon," said the Secretary General. "It will be sorted out," he said.

Mr. Annan planned to go to Beirut tomorrow after visiting Cairo. He is scheduled to meet both President Lahoud and Prime Minister Salim Hoss, and to see the United Nations peacekeeping mission's headquarters at Naqoura in southwestern Lebanon. Lebanon's objections were repeated today when President Lahoud's office issued a new statement dismissing reports that his country's reservations were resolved as "totally inaccurate."

The Security Council's endorsement of Mr. Annan's certification of the Israel withdrawal is important because it would set in motion the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers across Lebanon's southern border and authorize them to help the Lebanese government restore its authority.

Mr. Roed-Larsen, who supervised the complex verification process, told reporters here on Friday that within a few weeks the United Nations mission in southern Lebanon would be beefed up to 5,600 peacekeepers, from the 4,400 currently assigned. They would then set up fixed positions along the border and conduct regular patrols. Mr. Roed-Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat, postponed his own visit to Lebanon this weekend to remain available here for the Security Council. In the course of the verification, he met regularly with senior officials of Lebanon, Israel and Syria, among other countries.

The Islamic guerrilla movement Hezbollah, which repeatedly clashed with Israeli-backed forces in southern Lebanon, has been quiet since the withdrawal, But on Saturday, Hezbollah stirred the political pot by threatening to resume attacks on Israel unless its "encroachment" on Lebanese territory was halted.

The Lebanese government has not made totally clear what territory it believes the Israelis continue to occupy. United Nations inspection teams checked the length of the 72-mile border before assuring Mr. Annan on Friday that the Israelis had indeed withdrawn.

But Prime Minister Hoss charged in a statement Friday that Lebanese specialists accompanying the inspectors had witnessed Israeli encroachments on Lebanese territory. He cited no examples.

Lebanon has contended that the United Nations is using a "fictitious" line that does not confirm to the internationally recognized border. United Nations officials said that it is not the world body's responsibility to demarcate the border and that the inspectors relied on existing maps as well as on helicopter visits and ground patrols to identify points from which the Israelis have withdrawn. Lebanon has also complained that Israel still controls the Shabaa Farms, 10-square miles of remote farmland occupied by Israeli troops when they seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war.

United Nations officials pointed out that the border between Lebanon and Syria was never officially demarcated and that some maps put the farmland in Syria. The United Nations has left the Shabaa Farms to the jurisdiction of its observer mission monitoring the Syrian-Israeli truce line.