By Hadi Khatib
Lebanowire staff

Fatah's chief in Lebanon said Sunday his Palestinian faction would round up weapons from refugee camps amid growing calls for militias in the country to be disbanded, just as Israel issued a warning for Hezbollah not to consider doing any military activities at the country’s northern border with Lebanon.

Sultan Abu al-Aynayn announced yesterday that "we have decided to collect all the weapons we possess, including individual arms, and put them in secure places (inside the camps), in accordance with the wishes of the inter-Lebanese dialogue conference."

Leaders from across the political and religious spectrum have been meeting in Beirut to solve such contentious issues as the presence of armed Palestinians outside refugee camps and plan next week to deliberate the removal of Hezbollah’s weapons in relation to the Shebaa Farms, which the international community considers falling outside the UN’s Blue Line.

Some 380,000 Palestinians are believed to be living in Lebanon, many of them in dire conditions in 12 refugee camps.

Abu al-Aynayn also asserted the authority of the Palestine Liberation Organization - of which Fatah is the largest faction - as the only legitimate representative of Palestinians in Lebanon.

The PLO does not include Palestinian Islamist groups such as Hamas or pro-Syrian groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which has been involved in a number of shooting incidents outside Palestinian camps.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaoul Mofaz meanwhile issued a stern warning to the resistance movement saying “I advise Hezbollah not to engage in any military activities on the borders and to remain calm, or we will be forced to retaliate immediately.”

Israel continued its over-flights into Lebanese territories, sending reconnaissance planes into areas of Tyre, Nabatieh and Bint Jbeil.

Earlier this week, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan revealed he had information of a potentially catastrophic escalation at the Lebanese-Israeli border that would likely lead to a massive confrontation between Hezbollah and the Israeli Army.

UNIFIL commander in the south of Lebanon Allen Belligrini had also reported that the situation at that border was tense “with Israel on a high state of alert against potential military activity.”

Larsen

Meanwhile, Special UN Envoy for the implementation of UN 1559 announced from Riyadh on Sunday that the Blue Line drawn by the UN in 2000 still stands.

“The Shebaa Farms is an issue that Syria and Lebanon can agree upon and if they do then they could go together to the UN Security Council with new maps, but until that happens, the blue line has to be respected.”

Larsen indicated he is in the process of meeting with a number of officials while visiting a number of Arab countries including Lebanon.

Larsen had over the previous weeks visited with permanent members of the UN Security Council, gaining consensus over the need to implement UN 1559.

Larsen said “Lebanese at the dialogue table have reached an agreement over a number of issues related to UN 1559, such as the Palestinian weapons outside the camps, and the need to redraw the borders with Syria with whom Lebanon seeks diplomatic relations on the basis of sovereignty and independence for both countries.”

Following a meeting between Larsen and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abou Al-Ghayt, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa announced that the upcoming Arab Summit in Khartoum will include a discussion of the Syrian-Lebanese relations.

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