The council of ministers, which held a regular meeting chaired by President Emile Lahoud, focused on Israel’s aggression, calling on the Arab League to interfere with the Security Council to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the Palestinian people. According to Information Minister Ghazi Aridi, who briefed reporters on the session, the ministers rejected Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and hailed the Palestinians’ steadfastness.

Aridi quoted President Lahoud as saying that the Israeli invasion of Gaza has violated all humanitarian values and represented a mass murder of the Palestinians, “which we cannot accept”.

Aridi said that Lahoud contacted Arab League Secretary-General in that respect.

He went on to say that a meeting of the Arab League’s council will be held soon in Egypt after which a meeting of Arab foreign ministers will study the possibility of asking the Security Council to hold a meeting to discuss the Israeli offensive on Gaza.

Defensive Strategy

Meanwhile, former President and Phalange Party Higher Leader Amin Gemayel presented his party’s vision of a defensive strategy to the roundtable conference, according to An-Nahar.

The paper said that Gemayel’s paper tackled the defensive strategy and the issue of naturalization. On the strategy, Gemayel said that controversy surrounds the efficiency of the resistance’s weapons in liberating the Shebaa Farms, the identity of the Farms and whether they fall under UN Security Council Resolution 425 or 242.

The Shebaa Farms, located on the foothills of Mount Hermon, represent a bone of contention between Lebanon, Israel and Syria. While Israel and the UN claim the Farms belong to Syria, occupied by Israel during the 1967 Mideast war, Lebanon asserts the Farms are part of its territory. Syria supports Lebanon’s claim, but has not presented the UN with official documents to support its agreement. The UN says that since the Farms are part of Syrian territory, then they should be resolved through a Syrian-Israeli deal and thus there should be no need for the resistance by Hizbullah. The UN believes that Security Council Resolution 425, which stipulates the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory, has been completely achieved.

“From here, since Syria… has not responded to the Lebanese desire to demarcate borders and finds current circumstances not suitable for establishing diplomatic representation, then we cannot but appeal to the leaders who maintain friendly relations with the Syrian state to mediate with Syria and facilitate Lebanon’s mission. Demarcating the borders is a prelude to pressure Israel, through the Security Council, to withdraw from the Farms,” Gemayel said.

He asked whether the aim of the resistance’s arms is to liberate the farms or the farms represent an excuse to preserve the resistance.

Lebanese leaders are meeting intermittently at a roundtable conference to discuss controversial issues, including the arms of Hizbullah and Palestinian guerrillas outside refugee camps. The March 14 camp and the Party of God both have proposed separate defensive strategies in which they suggest ways to counter Israeli aggression. Hizbullah believes it should maintain its current status, whereby its guerrillas cooperate with the army. The Party of God believes that Israel still poses a threat to Lebanon, while the March 14 called for a UN resolution stipulating the deployment of multinational forces along the border. Both Hizbullah and Palestinian factions have come under increasing international pressure to disarm in line with Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarming of all local and foreign militias in Lebanon.

According to the paper, Gemayel addressed Hizbullah, raising questions on the Party of God’s strategy. He asked what the Party of God meant when it said it has the sole command of its arms, and what is coordination with the army for if the army is not involved in the decision for peace or war.

Democratic Gathering

Meanwhile, the Democratic Gathering of Druze leader Walid Jumblat presented its own strategy, saying it is independent from the vision of the anti-Syrian March 14 Coalition, to which Jumblat belongs. “Since the role of the Syrian and Iranian regimes is aimed at transforming Lebanon into an arena and since Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah [Hizbullah secretary-general] referred to Israeli threats to the region, then we should be cautious of attempts to transform Lebanon into a battlefield for [regional] conflicts that fall in the interests of others,” the strategy of the gathering said. In the strategy, Jumblat also asked Nasrallah whether he intends to mobilize society to transform it into a war society. “Does defending Lebanon require a war society?” the strategy asked. “If the issue is not only about defending Lebanon, then why should the Lebanese alone bear the grunts of the Arab-Israeli conflict?”

Berri

Along the same line, Speaker Nabih Berri said at a press conference at the end of the dialogue that the next session will be held on July 25. Berri called on the Arab and international community to assume their responsibilities toward the Israeli attack on the Palestinians. “Lebanon expresses its solidarity with the Palestinians,” he said. Berri said that he will air his position on a defensive strategy in the next session, which he said might be the final one.